News & stories

You couldn’t wipe the smile off Fred Rooks’ face when he was attending an event organised by The Alfred Foundation.

The Alfred Patrons Program launched this year as part of our 150th anniversary celebrations. It honours Alfred Health’s most significant supporters, celebrating their commitment and aims to create a long-term legacy of philanthropy. 

Team Alfred is going dry this July, including some of our stars in The Alfred Oncology team. Each year, The Alfred treats thousands of people living with cancer. 

While we celebrated the hospital’s 150th year of service last year, the invaluable contributions of our community have been integral to our achievements.

In this special edition of The Alfred Foundation's annual publication, Impact, we focus not only on the effect that donors have had throughout 2021, but on the significant impact that philanthropy has had in our 150-year history.

It was a pleasure to speak with Jacquie to hear her story. And what a story it is!  For the past 5 years Jacquie, now aged 70, has been sailing around the world on her boat. Her boat’s name is Shanti, which means peace, tranquility, bliss & the ability to rise above stress and adversity. As Jacquie says “kind of sums up my circumnavigation as well as my current journey with Leukaemia.”

Lisa has three grown children and lives with her husband Shane in Mildura, a 6-hour drive from Melbourne. Her and her husband have a morning ritual to get up early and go for a walk along the beautiful Murray River. In late 2019 & early 2020 it became increasingly difficult to go for those walks. She says, “I was just in so much pain, those morning walks became impossible.” When physio and pilates made no difference, Lisa went to her doctor. After a series of tests and scans she received the devastating diagnosis of Multiple Myeloma – A type of blood cancer.

With the support of the Dry July Foundation The Alfred has installed a new sky ceiling to help patients feel at ease while undergoing radiotherapy treatment.  By offering this room with a view we hope to be able to improve the overall experience a person has when being treated for cancer. 

Thanks to generous funding from the Dry July Foundation and a community of alcohol-free fundraisers The Alfred has implemented a new patient accommodation program; giving patients and their loved ones and carers from regional and rural Victoria a home away from home.

There was no hiding the amazing generosity at the spectacular Disha Masquerade Ball last Saturday night.  A carnival of caring people were out, all dedicated to making a meaningful difference for people living with cancer every single day.