12 December 19

Smiles galore as two South Australian charities get early Christmas surprise

SNAPSHOT
  • Two South Australian charities have each received a $50,000 donation from the Lott via SA Lotteries just in time for Christmas.
  • The donations will help The Childhood Cancer Association and Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation continue their work delivering important health services to the South Australian community.

By Bronnie Spencer

Updated 12 December 2019 - 10:51 am,

first published at 12 December 2019 - 10:51 am

Two South Australian charities have received an early Christmas surprise they will never forget after their routine business meetings unexpectedly came with $50,000 donations.

The Childhood Cancer Association and The Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation (WCHF) each received a $50,000 donation from the Lott via SA Lotteries. The donations will help support the important work they do in the South Australian community.

The Lott spokesperson Bronwyn Spencer was on hand to make the surprise donations.

“Creating winning moments in people’s lives isn’t something new for us at the Lott, but to see the reactions from these amazing charities was incredible,” she said.

“The impact these organisations and their hard-working teams have on South Australian families is nothing short of inspiring, so we wanted to do something to help them continue the wonderful work they do for others.”

WCHF Head of Fundraising Corinne Habel was the first to receive the surprise donation.

“Oh you are kidding me! We had no idea,” she exclaimed.

“Oh this is wonderful, thank you!

“This donation will go toward helping us upgrade the Home Equipment Centre. There are so many children that want to get home from hospital as quickly as possible, but require special equipment to make this happen.

“This will go a long way to helping children get back to their families sooner”.

The next to receive a $50,000 donation was the Childhood Cancer Association (CCA), which provides free services, such as counselling, education support and accommodation, to children and their families during their cancer journey.

CCA Chief Executive Cath O’Loughlin was caught completely off guard by the festive season treat.

“Oh my goodness, this is so unexpected!” Cath exclaimed.

“Every year we support hundreds of local children with cancer and their families, and to receive this surprise just before Christmas couldn’t be better timing.

“This donation will go a long way to provide essential services to families in need, right from their time of diagnosis. From there we can tailor our support to meet the individual needs of each family throughout treatment and beyond.

“Thank you so much. The families battling with childhood cancer will be so grateful. I am speechless!”

The home of Australia’s Official Lotteries, the Lott operates and markets Australia’s leading lottery games customers know and love creating everyday winners, winning every day.

In the 12 months to 30 June 2019, more than 131.8 million winners took home more than $3.3 billion in prize money from their favourite games at the Lott, including Saturday X Lotto, Monday and Wednesday X Lotto, Powerball, Oz Lotto, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Keno, Super 66, Lotto Strike and Instant Scratch-Its.

In the 12 months to 30 June 2019, Australia’s Official Lotteries contributed more than $1.4 billion via state lottery taxes and donations to help community initiatives, such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education.