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Cancer & Bowel Research Trust is under the trusteeship of Cancer & Bowel Research Association Inc.
The Cancer and Bowel Research Association owes its existence to the late Lyn Manhire. Lyn’s son, Troy Manhire, is the Association’s chief executive. Troy can’t remember a time when, growing up, his mother was not being treated for colorectal illness. For five years in the 1990s, when Troy was in his late-teens, Lyn moved in and out of hospital in Adelaide while her husband and children supported her as best they could. “The emotional impact on my mother and my family was very powerful,” says Troy. “In that period, I was called to the hospital five times to say goodbye but each time mum bounced back.” Troy’s memory of what his mother and family endured does not dim. “The pain involved of dealing with a long illness, knowing full well in the back of your mind that the inevitable is going to happen, was very powerful for me,” he says. Lyn Manhire passed away in 2004 at 55 years of age. Troy, along with family members and close friends, founded the Association to help and support sufferers of bowel-related illnesses, especially cancer. Its first project was to fund a three-year PhD research program at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where his mother was being treated. Within five years, the Association was a pioneer in bowel cancer awareness in Australia, elevating prevention of the disease to the public agenda. It continues to grow and is today one of Australia’s leading supporters of cancer sufferers and their families, providing funds and in-kind services, and increasing community awareness through the trust funds which it administers, worth $2.2 million in 2008-09. With Troy’s entrepreneurial talent and driven by the memory of his mother, he and the team at the Association have extended its services and charitable activities from South Australia to every eastern mainland state. The Association’s activities include patient and family accommodation and funding cancer awareness and prevention campaigns, cancer research and equipment for treatment and diagnosis of cancer in hospitals. A growing part of the Associations’ services is housing. Each year, the Association provides standalone housing for more than 50 bowel cancer patients and their families. The houses are within walking distance of hospitals and are offered for extended periods, allowing families to spend quality time with loved ones during lengthy hospital treatment. Another key figure in the founding of the Association is lawyer Nick Baldock, who drew up the first legal papers and is today its non-executive Chairman. “We stared out importing pens from China to sell and raise funds,” says Nick, who is a commercial law partner at Grope Hamilton Lawyers in Adelaide. “We’ve come a long way and the growth – particularly of late – has been exponential.” So pronounced is that growth that the Association will this year shift its headquarters to Brisbane where there is higher demand from bowel cancer patients and vastly greater scope to generate charitable contributions from corporate, business and private donors. Nick is doubly committed to the cause after the passing of both his father and a grandfather as a result of bowel cancer. Another non-executive director since 2004, Greg Hayes, also has a personal commitment – his mother was diagnosed with bowel cancer and also is deceased. |
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