SHAUNI Morrissey will be “forever grateful” to the support of the Portland community and to the people who donate each year to the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Appeal.

The Portland mother of three, now juggling two-and-a-half year old twins as well as dealing daily with daughter Annie’s shock diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia two years ago, said she would give everything to the RCH for saving her daughter’s life.

“People often say to me that the money raised for the RCH just goes to research and not directly to the children, but decades ago children like Annie had only a 10 per cent chance of survival.

“Now, thanks to research, it’s 90 per cent, and children like Annie are benefitting from that.”

Annie was diagnosed at the age of two.

“Now, she’s four.”

With a big chunk of Annie’s young life already spent in hospital due to ongoing treatments and complications with her illness, there is still a lot of travelling to and from Melbourne for further treatment for quite a while to come, Ms Morrissey said.

“Annie has daily chemo, which I give her, but we are off to Melbourne again this week for a lumbar puncture and spinal chemo.

“We will be back in time for the Good Friday Appeal though.

“I am very happy that it is happening again after COVID (interrupted it for two years), and I can’t wait for Annie to see the trucks.”

Ms Morrissey organised her own appeal on Facebook recently and raised $2000, simply by asking people to donate what they’d spend on coffee for a week, so imagine what everyone can achieve by donating to the CFA this week.

“The Good Friday Appeal changes lives; I encourage everyone to dig deep,” she said.

Others looking forward to the return of the appeal this week are those people behind the scenes: the organisers and the providers of sustenance to those out rattling the tins.

These are people such as Good Friday Appeal coordinator Stuart Richards, and Leoni Shemeld and her mother, who have been helping out on Good Friday for 37 and 62 years respectively.

They’ve been on the CFA’s ladies auxiliary “forever”, provide the lunches for all the people out on the trucks and helping to count up the donations as they come in.

They go from 9.30am to 6pm and this year will be “doing cold meat, salads and sandwiches this year – catered for by Short Street Takeaway.”

Mr Richards has been coordinating the appeal for about 10 years, he said, ever since the previous coordinator “put his name up”.

His unsung contribution to the appeal includes organising the collection tins at various businesses throughout the year, arranging the permits for the static roadside collection outside the CFA building, and overseeing the money counted at the end of the day.

The best result in any year was $28,000, he said.

So, bear a thought for the people who have to count all that money, like Ms Shemeld and her mother, especially when it involves five-cent pieces.

“I hate five-cent pieces,” she laughed.

“You stack them all up and them someone bumps the table …

“And we still get a lot of one- and two-cent pieces; even sixpences and threepences and Aldi tokens!”

Right now, though, Ms Shemeld is restocking the basics for the volunteers.

“Because of COVID we’ve had to buy everything again – tea, coffee, sugar and so on.

“We’ve really missed this doing the appeal over the past two years,” she said.

“Mum hadn’t missed a day in all her years here, so we’re all really looking forward to it.

“It’s our way of giving back.”