Great Walks for Great Kids

‘Great Walks for Great Kids’ is a fundraising initiative supporting Camp Quality. Camp Quality is a volunteer charitable trust dedicated to running camps where fun, friendship and a can-do culture inspire children living with cancer to overcome the challenges cancer brings.

Camp Quality is an organisation that is close to us as a family. In 2019, our then 4-year-old daughter Esme was diagnosed with Burkitt Lymphoma, an aggressive childhood cancer. She is now in remission but the challenges are not over. Esme is now 7 (nearly 8!) and has been lucky enough to experience Camp Quality and the opportunities that it gives to children.

Camp Quality does not receive any government funding and there is no cost to families when sending their child. It operates on the generosity of donors and grants from the wider community.

My goal is to raise $5,400 for Camp Quality, this amount will help two children experience the power of fun that Camp Quality offers and will allow them to “just be kids” (the cost for each child is around $2,700 per camp).

As part of ‘Great Walks for Great Kids’ I will be walking four tramping tracks in four days at the end of September. I will be walking the Rakiura track, Kepler track, Routeburn track and Greenstone track. This will be a huge challenge for me, however, nothing like the challenge faced by children and families living with cancer. In my journey, I will be covering 174km, 1km for every day that we spent away from home while Esme underwent treatment.