Support the Matthew's Family

Hi there - we are a group of friends fundraising for a gorgeous little family who has been devastated by the news no one wants to get. Sam and Erin, their young children Audrey, and little Frank call Rendelsham home.

In August 2021, the beautiful Matthew's family was devastated with the sudden news that Dad, Sam had an extremely rare, aggressive and difficult to treat form of metastatic peritoneal cancer, which they were told early on had a very poor prognosis. The news absolutely broke them, their families and their friends.

Sam immediately began an intense regime of systemic chemotherapy in Mount Gambier and underwent 6 rounds in the hope his cancer may be operable. During this time, friends and family in Adelaide took it in turns to come down and provide support to the family, but Covid made this extremely difficult at times. Their family was required to isolate away during the time they most needed support. The rural community surrounding them have been incredible. They’ve cooked and cleaned, run errands, done deliveries, messaged, called, cared for the children and even rocked up at their place while they were away for treatment to do a working bee! They have wrapped themselves around this beautiful family and made Sam, Erin and the children feel so held, loved and supported.

With news in December that the systemic chemo had not been the success hoped, and that the cancer remained inoperable, Sam began an innovative and relatively new treatment called PIPAC through the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide. The hope is that this will target the cancer more directly and shrink it enough to enable surgery, giving Sam precious time with his wife and children.

No one likes to ask for financial support – it’s just shitty. Sam’s diagnosis turned their world upside down overnight and has impacted both their ability to work in the short term while navigating the unknown path of Sam’s disease and treatment whilst also caring for their two young children. Sam and Erin have been able to access some short term support with some of their finances and feel very fortunate and privileged to do this. While doing the best they can as things remain so uncertain, Sam and Erin have said many times that they couldn’t ask for anything more than the support they’ve currently been given by the wonderful people surrounding them. It will be a long road though, and we want to help them out wherever we can. Whatever you could spare to lend a hand will go a long way to supporting Erin, Sam, Audrey and Frank with mounting bills. Hopefully, it will take just a little bit of worry away, enabling them to make the most of this valuable time together and maybe even do something that they wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.