FA Day 2008

FA Day in Australia is the 29th October every year. This year we decided to have a BBQ on the 25th October, a Saturday, in honour of the 29th! Keep in mind that FA Australia is still small and we are still getting to know FA Families within the different states of Australia. So we have 3 states where we are definitely aware of FA families and are in regular contact with. These are in Western Australia, New South Whales and South Australia. We do know of families in Queensland and in Melbourne, Victoria but we don't have a close enough connection to be able to organise something like this in their states. If they went to the website, they would know about FA Day. Anyone who wants to participate on that day is welcome even if we don't know them well. However, we will build the closer relationships with those families at some point and we hope to see families from those states coming to future camps. So the existing families had BBQ's today on the 25th!

We live in Adelaide. We are aware of 3 families in Adelaide with FA. Unfortunately one family live about 2 hours out of Adelaide and are farmers. It just happened to be that the harvest fell right at the time of our BBQ so they couldn 't come. However, we had 2 families at our BBQ. Debbie, Steven and their kids - Stephany, Baily, Isla (8 years and has FA, post transplant last year) and Donna. The other family was my family - Alan, Isaac and I (FA Adult - 30 years, no transplant) my mum and dad, sister, her husband (Tim) and daughter (Eliana) So with both our families we had 14 people at our BBQ. It was lovely. It was a very hot day to have a picnic though. Temperature was about 38 degrees celcius which is about 100.4 degrees F. It was also quite windy. Despite the weather conditions, we all had a good time. We had sausages and kababs for lunch with salad. We all had an ice-cream afterwards which was nice. There was a nice, big playground there and the kids enjoyed that. We brought a ball and such which kept the kids occupied and the adults just relaxed and chatted. There was a pond near by and the kids enjoyed feeding the ducks.

Below: This is Debbie, Steven and their kids. That is also Isaac in the photo. He and Donna, who is their youngest (4) got along really well and spent most of the day hanging out together. Isla is the one who has FA. She is 8 and had a transplant last year. She is going really well. She is the girl holding the full cup of red cordial.
Debbie and Steven in the background. Isaac and Donna showing me how well they can drink! Ha! Have you noticed Isaac's shirt? These t-shirts come in all different sizes and colours and were our fundraiser at camp.

Steven and Debbie. Isla is on her dad's knee. She has FA (i know I have already said that ...hehe). Every time I took a photo of Debbie she had her eyes closed and would probably be horrified at the photo! Ha! Debbie is a very sweet lady.

My mum, Wilma, Caz and Myself! (notice my t-shirt?)

Feeding the ducks! Isla (FA) and Isaac standing next to each other

Isaac and Isla (FA ) again.

More duck feeding! It is always a bit hit at this park!

More duck feeding!

David, Karl and Carol (Caz). These people....well what can I say? They gate crashed! They are our friends and were in the area. It was fun to have them there and they bought Fanconi Anaemia Caps which were our fundraiser for FA Day this year....and they are nice caps. You can see a bit of them here. Thanks for buying a couple of hats guys!

The two "FA kids"....hehe, Isla (8) and I (Charisse - 30)

I was proud to wear my FA cap! Ha! Debbie and myself....Donna snuggling in

The Gang! Handing out FA caps to those who wanted to buy them!

Some view of the park. Already becoming dry and we have only just started summer!

Eating, drinking and relaxing!

Alan cooking the Barby! Like his shirt and his FA cap? That is our official "uniform"

The kids back at the pond.....aren't they cute? I am amazed at the children's sizes......Donna on the left is only 4 but Isaac next to her is almost 6 years old. The Isla who has FA is standing far right and she is almost 8. Donna, Isaac and Isla are all similar sizes despite their age differences!

So yes, our official fundraiser this year was Fanconi Anaemia Caps. They are really nice. I will have to take a closer picture of them. I should take a closer picture of our t-shirts as well! They were popular at camp! The caps were also sent to the other states for them to sell at their BBQ's as well. So I hope they were a hit! I have not heard how the other BBQ's went yet but I am sure that Brooke will let us know how things went with her and we will see photos. It is great to finally see Australian families bonding and getting support and going "out there" to help with awareness and fundraising and support. We have had none of this happening before Fanconi Anaemia Australia was formed and it has taken us a couple of years to get to this stage. It is nice and rewarding and encouraging for all our families. We look forward to coming in contact with more families and getting to know more of them in a more personal way. I am aware that there are families in states that we have not yet had contact with. We have to wait to be contacted because of confidentiality laws. However, it is a working progress!

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Love Charisse