Health troubles set aside at Camp Quality
BY MICHELLE DUFF
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She has struggled with a rare form of leukaemia, but Palmerston North six-year-old Erykah Ellis-Yorke is now bouncing high.
Giggling as she bounded around the bouncy castle at Awapuni Racecourse on Saturday, Erykah and her two friends had more than enough energy to tire out camp volunteer Grant O'Neale.
They were there as part of the 25th anniversary of Camp Quality, a not-for-profit organisation which runs camps for children who have cancer, or are recovering from it.
More than 40 local children and their families turned out for lolly scrambles, painting, crafts, rides in vintage and V8 cars, and entertainment from UCOL performing arts students.
For children like Erykah, who is in remission from acute myloid leukaemia, Camp Quality is a godsend, her mum, Angela Ellis-Yorke, said. "It allows them to be themselves, they don't get treated differently or looked at funny.
"They become like a family. They need a lot of love from what they've been through or are going through. Camp Quality are just an awesome bunch of people, it's amazing what they do with the kids."
Camp Quality regional manager Tony Clifford said the camps aimed to give children aged 5 to 16 a break from their parents – and their parents a rest too. "They have had all these health issues, it's to give them a week of fun ... to bring hope and happiness to the lives of these children and their families."
Twenty-five years of helping kids with cancer is a bittersweet milestone, he said. "It would be good if we were closing down because there were no problems, but cancer is an inevitable problem, isn't it?"
- © Fairfax NZ News
