Capturing Memories for Cancer Families

Last month, approximately 12 families in New Zealand would have heard the heartbreaking news that their child has cancer. With the large challenge that lies ahead of them, child cancer families often don’t have time to organise family photographs, not to mention the financial burden of medical bills that would leave them unable to pay a photographer. But continuing to document precious family memories during this time is so important.

So that’s where I come in. I’m Michelle, a storytelling family photographer from Auckland. Storytelling images don’t just remind you of what your loved ones look like, these photographs capture the soul and help you to relive real moments and feelings. That’s what I want to give to these families, genuine memories that they can treasure for a lifetime.

I recently gifted a photography session to a local family in this situation and it showed me how much a gift like this means to a child cancer family: “Our son Joshua was diagnosed with leukemia in April 2014. After enduring nearly a year of treatment we wanted to make Joshua's 3rd birthday a truly special occasion. Thanks to the lovely Michelle our wish became a reality. The photographs she captured of Joshua on his special day were beautiful beyond words. She effortlessly captured such precious moments of our little superhero and his friends. We will treasure these memories for a lifetime - Thank you Michelle!”

That session went so well that I’d now like to create a project inspired by that session and gift my services to a handful of other families by capturing their beautiful everyday memories in their homes. However I can’t cover the cost of doing this large project by myself so I need your help! I believe that photos are much more of a treasure when they are printed and are tangibly available to be held and paged through, so I will be gifting photobooks and framed prints to each family. These products are costly, so for each family I need to raise $1000 to make a dent in the costs, and I’ll cover the rest. For each family, your donations will be used towards the costs of a premium, hard cover photobook (valued at $600), a custom, museum quality framed photo print (valued at $610) and other miscellaneous costs such as petrol for travel.

I have contacts for 6 families who would benefit from this gift, so at the end of this campaign, for each $1000 that is raised, I will let one family know that generous donors have made it possible for them to receive a premium family photography session to preserve their family’s memories.

If you would like updates on this project and to see sample images from the completed gifted sessions, send me an email (hello@michellefrances.co.nz) and I will add you to the mailing list.

Please note, if the final donated total cannot be split into $1000 increments, I will retain the remainder to use towards my next project for gifting sessions to families in need.