THOSE at the heart of the campaign had known for a week, but for others the excited phone calls started coming in fast yesterday afternoon.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
They might have been just a few words uttered in State Parliament but they were what hundreds of families battling cancer and thousands of supporters had waited years to hear.
The state government had agreed to fund $10 million for radiotherapy services in south-west Victoria.
Peter’s Project supporters filed into the bar at the Hotel Warrnambool last night.
Many of them wrapped their arms around founder Vicki Jellie, who was still emotional with the news.
It was a seemingly low-key event for what has been a long community campaign to honour the last wish of Peter Jellie, who passed away from oesophagus cancer in 2008.
With a beer in his hand, Mr Jellie’s old boss, Midfield Meats managing director Colin McKenna, reflected on how far the fight had come.
“It started as a quiet dream,” he told The Standard.
“When Peter passed on we got our heads together and it’s just grown.
“I’m elated.”
On paper a lot is still needed — a tender process and millions more are necessary to complete the final vision of a comprehensive, integrated cancer care centre.
But the money is now there for radiotherapy services.
Committee member Vern Robson, a cancer survivor, was upbeat in his outlook that with the state money now in the pocket, Peter’s Project would be able to petition the Commonwealth for the final $10 million.
“All of us in our own, individual way have been involved with cancer … I had prostate cancer,” he said.
“It’s taken the best part of three-and-a-half years to get to where we are today.”
South West Healthcare chief John Krygger, who has also been at the forefront of the push, said the hospital would now play a key part in the tender process for a service operator.
A site has already been earmarked at the former dental clinic opposite the hospital.
“We will play a pivotal role in putting all that together,” Mr Krygger said.
So far, Peter’s Project has raised nearly $80,000 in community donations and it hopes to add another $4.2 million in the next year.
But the hardest part seems to be over.
“Denis (Napthine) and I howled last week. We cried and cried,” Ms Jellie said.
“The money is there now.”