A CANCER patient who generously donated 300 boxes of books to the Mount Gambier Rotary Club received an opportunity to donate $1000 to the oncology department at Mount Gambier Hospital in return.
Mount Gambier resident Grant Leach donated the books to the club after recently closing his online book store.
Past Rotary club president Willem Moors said the club wanted to do something worthy for Mr Leach following the generous donation.
“We thought we had to do something for Grant, so we gave him the option of a $300 petrol voucher or $1000 donation to any charity or organisation he liked,” Mr Moors said.
“Grant graciously chose to donate the money to the oncology department.”
Diagnosed with cancer, Mr Leach saw the opportunity to donate the money to something that could potentially help him and many others.
“Seeing as I am about to undertake oncology here at Mount Gambier, it seemed like a good idea,” he said.
Mr Leach’s wife Rhonda said she was “astonished” when the Rotary club approached them with the offer.
“It has been a tremendous opportunity to be able to do something for oncology,” Rhonda said.
“I know the money will be put to good use and if there is another chance in the future to support the department again, we would not hesitate.”
Oncology department manager Nebu Mathew said he was overwhelmed by the generous support shown by Grant and the wider Mount Gambier community.
“I can’t thank the community in Mount Gambier enough because they are just so generous and supportive,” Mr Mathew said.
“I used to work in the metropolitan area and I just haven’t seen this kind of support before.”
Mr Mathew said the money would be used to help decrease the stress associated with being diagnosed with cancer and having to receive chemotherapy.
“Cancer is not a happy word and everyone is going to get stressed once they know they have it,” Mr Mathew said.
“We try to do what we can as a department to make the patient’s journey a little bit less stressful.
“These donations go towards things like books and music systems so the patient who is having chemotherapy for four to five hours a day can have their mind diverted in some way.”
