Community Backs Cancer Care Vision with $8K Donation

Donations raised at Life Publishing Group’s sold-out Enchanted Garden fundraiser in October 2025 are currently being distributed, with a total of $56,000 shared among seven charities doing vital work across North Queensland.

This week, a cheque for $8,000 was presented to Jacquie Camilleri, founding director at the Trudy Crowley Foundation.

The Trudy Crowley Foundation is a Mackay-based charity providing vital support to individuals and families affected by cancer, with a strong focus on ovarian cancer awareness.

Established in 2018 in memory of local woman Trudy Crowley, the organisation is dedicated to ensuring no one faces cancer alone. Through its community centre, the foundation offers free services including access to specialist cancer nurses, counselling, support groups, and practical resources such as a wig library.

By delivering holistic care and raising awareness, the foundation continues to play a significant role in supporting the health and wellbeing of the Mackay and Whitsundays community.

Jacquie explained that the foundation is currently planning a new facility, and that this donation would go toward that effort.

“We are trying to save desperately for our palliative care unit, and we have quite a lot of money in the bank,” she explained.

“We're trying to buy some land, so then we can go to the governments, federal and state, and try and get grants from them to actually help build the building. We have now just got our project board in place.”

The palliative care unit will be built with care, run on the foundation’s principal that no patient suffering with cancer, or person in their life, should feel alone.

“Trudy's dream has now become our vision, and our vision is going to become a reality,” Jacquie said.  

“It'll be an eight bedroom facility with one room designated for children.

“That's a hard thing to talk about, but it's a reality of life; we would love to get what they used to call a cold cot. They're now called cuddle cots, for the little ones that pass, so the parents can spend time with them... We're going to have a chapel, and we'd like to build a doctor's house so we can actually have the doctor on site.”

These big plans are on track to become a reality; thanks in part to those who donated to support this impactful organisation, on track to change end-of-life care in our region.

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