When Manj Senn first signed up to volunteer in the Good Friday Appeal phone room, she didn’t know how indebted she would feel to The Royal Children’s Hospital one day.

Manj has been volunteering in the phone room since 2010, initially volunteering to give back to the community and as her cousin had brain surgery at the RCH as a child.

But her reason for volunteering changed when she had her son, Dylan, and the RCH became a second home to her family.

Dylan, was born with a small or underdeveloped jaw and a cleft palate. He had surgery on his jaw and spent the first three months living on the Butterfly Ward at the RCH. Dylan is still under the care of medical teams at the RCH.

“The care the nurses and doctors gave us was unforgettable. Anything we can do for the RCH, like working in the phone room on Good Friday, is nothing in comparison to what they’ve done for us,” Manj said.

Manj is joined by her sister and two cousins in the phone room each year, a tradition for the family.

“I have 9 nieces and nephews, and four of those have all been looked after by the RCH over the years for serious health situations so I feel like we are forever in debt to the RCH.”

This year Manj and her family were back taking donation calls for the 90th Appeal and just a couple days later her son was at the Hospital having emergency surgery on a tooth and stayed in hospital for a week.

“I was trying to do something helpful and give back to the hospital and 48 hours later I felt like I was already calling in a favour.”

Manj said she loves volunteering in the phone room and hearing the stories of why people are calling to donate.

“Some are heartbreaking but many are just an overwhelming sense of gratitude because of their experiences with RCH, which is my feeling as well.”

Explore More

FUNDRAISE

VOLUNTEER

PATIENT STORIES

Our Newsletter

Everything Good Friday Appeal, straight to your inbox. Get more information about your impact and how to get involved.

Subscribe

Hundreds of volunteers selflessly give their time in the money counting room on Good Friday each year, counting the coins and cash donated to our tin shakers.

Many have been volunteering for decades, following the counting room as it moved from the old Herald Sun loading dock in Flinders Street, to the Southbank office, then to Etihad (now Marvel) Stadium and now at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Volunteers from both of our authorised collection groups, the Pied Pipers and Uncle Bobs Club (UBC), attend the counting room each year. 

A group of 14 volunteers from the Pied Pipers have clocked up 534 years of service collectively, with the first one of them, John Boorn ( pictured in the middle below), starting back in 1957.

Each year they come back and enjoy catching up with each other and giving their time for the kids.

There are many other Pied Pipers volunteers who are dedicated to the money counting room, like the Tyrrell family who have been volunteering in their for more than 50 years and Leon Duncombe who reached 65 years in 2018.

Jacqueline Priest from UBC has been volunteering on Good Friday for 20 years, in a variety of roles but mostly in the counting room.

“UBC and the Good Friday Appeal has always been a part of my family. My great grandfather was one of the first members of UBC and each generation of my family has been involved,” Jacqueline said.

When she was young, Jacqueline started out by transporting bags of coins to the counting room with trolleys. At 16 she started collecting, and once she turned 18, Jacqueline would go back to the counting room after collecting to help count the coins until the final hours of the day. 

In recent years, since being a Director of UBC, her main role has been assisting in the counting room.

Jacqueline said 2021 was her favourite year of volunteering at the Appeal.

“Being able to be a part of something so amazing after such an ordinary year gave me such a buzz.”

Join a collection group

You can join the Pied Pipers or the Uncle Bobs Club or just volunteer with them, to help support the Good Friday Appeal.

FIND OUT MORE

Explore More

FUNDRAISE

VOLUNTEER

PATIENT STORIES

Our Newsletter

Everything Good Friday Appeal, straight to your inbox. Get more information about your impact and how to get involved.

Subscribe

They may live in one of the smallest towns in Victoria – with a population of just 85, according to the 2016 Census – but the people of Wood Wood have big hearts.

For each of the past 15 years they have given around $1000 to the Good Friday Appeal.

Thanks to local mum and truck driver Annette Blachford, a small team of volunteers doorknocks households in Wood Wood, nearby Piangil and along about 10km of highway near the Murray River border communities.

Annette is one of our 190 volunteer regional Area Managers who fundraise on behalf of the Appeal, organising events, collections, door knocks and activities, and rallying their community to Give for the Kids.

The Area Manager for Wood Wood decided to get involved in the Appeal after her then five-month-old son Brees was diagnosed at The Royal Children’s Hospital with allergies to dairy, eggs and nuts. He had six monthly treatments at the hospital until the allergies cleared when he was 10.

Now aged 18, Brees has always joined his parents and sisters Taylen, 16, and Summer, 15, for the annual doorknock.

“No one in our area was doing anything for the Appeal and never had,” Annette said. “I thought a doorknock would be fairly easy to organise.

“Every year the kids help – and have been doing it since they were about 3 – along with my husband, mother, sister and her family, and another lady who always comes along.”

In 2020, COVID put a stop to the doorknocking but Annette arranged for collection tins at the Wood Wood general store and the Piangil post office so people could continue to donate.

Annette had a similar approach for the 2021 Appeal. This year she left donation envelopes in the post boxes at the local post offices in Wood Wood and Piangil, as well as the collection containers and using a QR code.

Being prepared is something Annette knows all about – she drives a road train that can carry up to 53 tonnes of grain from farms to the local silos. In the harvest season her day starts at 6am and it could be 10pm before she gets home. “There are no shops out there, so you have to take everything with you!”

Share Your Story

We'd love to hear how The Royal Children's Hospital has touched your life, as well as the stories of our volunteers and fundraisers.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Explore More

FUNDRAISE

VOLUNTEER

PATIENT STORIES

Our Newsletter

Everything Good Friday Appeal, straight to your inbox. Get more information about your impact and how to get involved.

Subscribe

Despite being a small town in the southern Mallee, the Hopetoun community always dig deep to support the Appeal.

Olive has generously been supporting the Appeal for more than 60 years, since 1956.

She is one of almost 200 Area Managers across Victoria and southern New South Wales who fundraise on behalf of the Good Friday Appeal.

Watch this interview with Olive

Explore More

FUNDRAISE

VOLUNTEER

PATIENT STORIES

Our Newsletter

Everything Good Friday Appeal, straight to your inbox. Get more information about your impact and how to get involved.

Subscribe

Roy is from the Royal Exchange Hotel Cork Club in Traralgon.

The club is the top fundraising hotel in Victoria and has raised more than $2 million for the Appeal since the 1970s.

Roy is one of almost 200 regional Area Managers across Victoria and southern New South Wales who fundraise on behalf of the Good Friday Appeal.

Roy shares their inspiration and the key to their success in this video.

Explore More

FUNDRAISE

VOLUNTEER

PATIENT STORIES

Our Newsletter

Everything Good Friday Appeal, straight to your inbox. Get more information about your impact and how to get involved.

Subscribe

Kathie is Wodonga’s own tour de force in the days leading up to the annual Good Friday Appeal.

For the past 26 years, the nearly 70-year-old has rattled tins around the light industrial area of the town. With help from either her young grandsons (Hunter, 13, and Cage, 10), her nephew, Caleb, 14, or her twin sister, she’s the face of the appeal in that part of town. She said her best effort was last year when in just four days she collected $1535 in her tins.

“It does you good to get away from the house and out helping others,” Kathie said. “Every year my husband says I say it will be my last, but I always come back.”

Although none of Kathie’s family has had to use the services of the Royal Children’s Hospital, she said with grandchildren “you never know when you might need it”.

Area manager for Wodonga Phil Wilkins said Kathie was a stalwart in the town. “She loves it and it’s a great delight to see her involved,” he said. “She gets a real glimmer in her eye when she knows she’s done well.

“Kathie has contributed hundreds of hours and collected thousands of dollars for the Appeal. It’s the efforts of our collectors, like Kathie, who ensure the continued increase of the Wodonga total – which cracked the million dollars in 2017.”

Phil, who has an architectural business in the town, has been the Appeal’s Area Manager for the Wodonga Lions Club for 12 years. His “right hand man” is the regional commander of the Wodonga West fire brigade Alex Todd. “It’s a real joint effort,” Phil said.

The Appeal has gone from strength to strength in Wodonga. Phil said records going back to 1984 showed in that year around $1800 was collected. Last year the 120 volunteers and 42 Lions club members led an effort that contributed more than $100,000 to the Appeal.

Over the years, legends have been created. And it’s hard to beat the time the Lions Club members  decided to “swim to Melbourne” to raise money. An open top milk tanker was filled with water and relay teams swam laps as the truck drove to Melbourne. “It wouldn’t happen now, but these are the things we cherish…” Phil said.

Explore More

FUNDRAISE

VOLUNTEER

PATIENT STORIES

Our Newsletter

Everything Good Friday Appeal, straight to your inbox. Get more information about your impact and how to get involved.

Subscribe

Although John had been involved in fundraising activities with the Pied Pipers for a few years it all became personal after his now 17-year-old granddaughter Zoe was diagnosed with cancer when she was 18 months old.

Zoe is now cancer-free and the legacy of her illness can be seen in her family’s support for the Good Friday Appeal. John, with the help of Zoe’s mother Lesley, organises the Lakes Entrance CFA Brigade’s annual fundraising activities.

“It’s a real community effort,” John said.

With the focus on Good Friday, activities include two raffles (one at each end of the Lakes Entrance main street), doorknocking throughout the day and collections around the town’s entertainment venues in the evening.

“The whole community gets behind the activities,” John said. “We raise more than $20,000 for the hospital each year.”

About 30 brigade volunteers help with the raffles and the door-knock, along with about 50 kids from around the area.

Through his takeaway shop, Fish-A-Fare, John donates food for the volunteers during the day with salads and drinks paid for by the CFA and one of John’s suppliers, Aygee Gippsland, providing lollies for the kids. Mini-buses to ferry the doorknocking kids around are donated by Gippsland Lakes Community Health and at the end of the day, local National Bank staff give their time to count the donations.

John has been a CFA volunteer for nearly 50 years, the past 26 in Lakes Entrance. He has been the local area appeal manager for the Good Friday Appeal for about 12 years, taking over from the late Allen Bills who ran the fundraising activities in the region for more than 20 years.

“My involvement ramped up after Zoe had been in the Children’s for quite some time with cancer,” John said.

“The way they treated us was just exceptional. You couldn’t ask for better.”

He said the family experienced the same fantastic care when his own children and another grandchild had needed the hospital’s services.

After this year’s disappointing cancellation of activities because of COVID-19, John said everyone was hoping 2021 would see a return to normal efforts.

“We really missed it badly this year, but we did still manage to raise about $5000 in a virtual tin rattle.”

Explore More

FUNDRAISE

VOLUNTEER

PATIENT STORIES

Our Newsletter

Everything Good Friday Appeal, straight to your inbox. Get more information about your impact and how to get involved.

Subscribe

When their eldest son Matthew was almost 3 years old he was diagnosed with Leukemia. Immediately following the diagnosis, Matthew was sent to The Royal Children’s Hospital where he received treatment and care for two months. 

Sadly, after almost two years of back and forth to the Hospital, Matthew lost his battle with Leukemia in March 1975, at the age of 4 years and 8 months. 

The couple’s youngest son Hayden also spent time at The Royal Children’s Hospital as he suffered severe asthma attacks.

The legacy of both Matthew, and the years the whole family spent with the hospital, is reflected in the couple’s support of the Good Friday Appeal. 

To give back, they began a simple Good Friday Marnoo community BBQ fundraiser at their farm with the couple providing the meat and attending locals providing salads and desserts.

“The whole community turned out and it became a regular event each year for 15 years”, says Doug remembering the impact of their fundraisers.

Doug notes typical attendance being between 100 to 140, raising well over $1,000 for the Marnoo tally annually. For this incredible effort, the couple received the Honorary Life Governor award in August 1981.

Doug and Laurel have now retired to Gherang where they have built a new home and brought an on-farm art gallery to life. On their new property, the couple has welcomed a fold of Scottish Highland cattle with Shrek, their Highland Bull, a popular star amongst visitors.

They have continued to be involved in their local community and Doug reflects, “nearly everyone we meet has had some sort of connection with the hospital.”

“We are incredibly excited to have Doug and Laurel join the Good Friday Appeal Regional Area Managers team. They are wonderful supporters of the Appeal and we are thankful to have them as part of the wonderful Gherang community”.

– Jac Fletcher, Good Friday Appeal Fundraising Manager

Explore More

FUNDRAISE

VOLUNTEER

PATIENT STORIES

Our Newsletter

Everything Good Friday Appeal, straight to your inbox. Get more information about your impact and how to get involved.

Subscribe

Matt Riordan appreciates better than many people the amazing work that is done at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

When he was six Matt was diagnosed with leukaemia – that was the beginning of his 14 ½ year journey as a patient at the hospital.

Matt, now 44, said he was mainly a day patient but when things weren’t going well he had to stay longer. His longest stint was a six-week stay in March 1990 when he had a bone marrow transplant.

He didn’t get the “all clear” until the early 2000s and still has ongoing side effects from the years of chemotherapy.

But he knows that without that treatment he would probably not be alive.

Five years ago he signed on as a volunteer with the Good Friday Appeal.

“I was watching the Appeal on TV at home in Bendigo and just thought it was time to give something back after all the hospital did for me,” Matt said.

A book keeper by profession, he puts his skills to good use in the cash booths.

“It’s a great day. I usually work with the same people and it’s really good to catch up with them each year.

“We don’t stop once the money starts coming in, but that doesn’t bother me – I’m there to help after all they did for me. To give back.”

He encouraged anyone who was thinking about volunteering with the Appeal to “definitely go for it”.

“It feels great at the end of the day to know that you have helped thousands of kids who are sick.”

Explore More

FUNDRAISE

VOLUNTEER

PATIENT STORIES

Our Newsletter

Everything Good Friday Appeal, straight to your inbox. Get more information about your impact and how to get involved.

Subscribe

The little girl ended up needing a blood transfusion and being in hospital for a week instead of a few hours.

It was the fantastic care that her daughter and the family received that made a lasting and inspiring impression on Sonia. “Everyone was so caring,” she said.

Now Sonia is a 10-year veteran volunteer of the phone room for the Good Friday Appeal. And she has enlisted the services of three sisters – Antoinette, Ines and Marina – who also volunteer in the phone room.

The RCH and the appeal have a big place in the family’s hearts. A nephew lost his eye when he was just eight months old because of a retinal detachment and through the hospital now has a hand-painted glass eye.

“He was born with the retinal detachment, but it was only discovered through a photo taken with a flash when he was eight months old,” Sonia said.

“The only option was to remove his eye, but he has a glass eye that was hand painted by a lady at the hospital. His mother watched her doing it – it was incredible.”

Sonia and her sisters enjoy working the 6pm to midnight shift in the phone room. “It’s great fun, people are so generous, and I really like hearing their stories on the phone,” she said. 

Sonia, who was working at the RCH when she first volunteered, now works in admin at the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.

She encourages anyone thinking about getting involved in the Appeal to “go for it”.

“I look forward to it every year. It comes around so quickly and goes so quickly – it’s very rewarding to be part of it.” 

Explore More

FUNDRAISE

VOLUNTEER

PATIENT STORIES

Our Newsletter

Everything Good Friday Appeal, straight to your inbox. Get more information about your impact and how to get involved.

Subscribe