From camper to volunteer, Roan has been a part of our Camp Quality Community for over 10 years!

“I had just turned 11 and I was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma, a bone cancer in my left arm,” says Roan.

After his diagnosis, Roan spent the next year in hospital, undergoing many rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

“I tried to be as active as I could. In the weeks off [treatment] I’d try to get out and be active and exercise. But during the intense chemo, it is a week of feeling really miserable.”

During treatment, Roan’s parents took turns driving down from their home on the Central Coast to be with him. The other parent would stay with his sister, Cessa, who was two years older than Roan and in high school. Roan said that his parents shielded him from the impact the hospital stays had on the family, especially on Cessa.

“It was challenging for her during that time. It is something that is overlooked, the effect on siblings. Friends would get angry that she wasn’t spending time with them because she was in the hospital with me all summer. Fifteen-year-old girls aren’t as accepting if someone can’t hang out or has other priorities like needing to come to hospital with me. It was something I didn’t know, and she told me all this after.”

Roan’s family registered with Camp Quality after receiving a recommendation from their social worker. In 2013, Roan went to his first Kids’ Camp at Broken Bay.

The family also attended Family Camps and Family Fun Days during that time, including flipping the coin at the local Central Coast Mariners games, NRL games, and tree tops obstacle courses.

“It was great to be looked after so well by volunteers, allowing us all to enjoy the moment by disconnecting from my treatment and meet families with similar journeys while not in a hospital ward.”

In 2015, after one of their routine scan, they received the news that Roan had relapsed. The scan showed a tiny cancer spec on his lung.

Roan endured another year of gruelling chemotherapy before finishing treatment just in time for Christmas 2015. When he looks back on that year, he says “you just had to put your head down, look at that target and just try to get through it.”

Attending a Family Camp was one of Roan and his family’s treatment milestones. Roan says that he would keep the Camp in mind when he was struggling, “a few more rounds of treatment, and I get to go on camp.”

Seven years later, in 2022, while at University, Roan signed up to volunteer with Camp Quality. Since then, he has volunteered at camps and Family Fun Days in Sydney, Port Macquarie, Port Stephens, WA, and QLD.

“It was always my intention to come back and give back. Help the next generation. I have had the best time volunteering. Meeting so many different families impacted by cancer and trying to provide them with some respite from really challenging times has been memorable and rewarding.”

Roan still has checkups to monitor his health. The doctors are no longer concerned that the cancer will return but there is an increased risk of other illnesses as a result of the treatment he received.

While Roan was completing his thesis in 2023, he worked part-time at Camp Quality for a year and said that it “reaffirmed why this organisation is so important and that the people running the organisation are incredible.”