April 2003

Teen patients gain their own space

Australian Olympic and Commonwealth Games swimming champion Matt Welsh and Health Minister Bronwyn Pike opened the new recreation ‘space’ for adolescent cancer patients at Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

The space has been made possible after Matt donated the $10,000 he received under the Tattersall’s Champions Dream Program for his achievements in the recent Commonwealth Games.

The ‘space’ includes a recreation room for adolescent patients and will be fitted with a plasma TV, DVD player, Playstation and Internet access for patients to keep in touch with family and friends.

It will also provide young patients with the opportunity to meet visitors in an informal environment, away from the hospital ward.

Ms Pike and Matt Welsh were helped to paint the room’s walls by teenage cancer patient Casey Mackay, 18, who is recovering from Ewings Sarcoma and completing VCE this year.

The room is an initiative of TLC for Kids, a charity that works with Victorian hospitals to improve the lives of children and young people who have been hospitalised.

‘I’m delighted to be opening this room with one of Australia’s real champions, Matt Welsh. Matt’s not only a big-hearted champion—holding a number of backstroke records—but he’s also a big-hearted philanthropist,’ Ms Pike said.

‘This ‘space’ will provide a great time-out area and sense of normality for adolescents who are fighting cancer with the help of the people at Peter MacCallum.

‘This is an important partnership that we are celebrating, a partnership between a not-for-profit organisation—TLC for Kids—the public hospital sector and individual philanthropists.’