The heart of small towns lie in its people and Nyngan has been shining in the last few weeks with the town digging deep to fundraise for its community. 

Recently the local Can Assist branch held its annual High Tea with around 110 locals and visitors frocking up and heading to the Nyngan Town Hall to share a happy time with friends and families. 

The Branch which has been operating since 2014 is run by a group of enthusiastic local women and men under the guidance of cancer survivor Lyn Webster. 

Lyn who orchestrated the establishment of the branch, also spearheads the High Tea and is thrilled with the money they raised for the event. 

“We are so happy with the day and have raised around $6300 for our Branch. We love how the community comes together to enable days such as these to take place. From the donations of food, flowers, raffle prizes and time, we are able to put together a beautiful day that so many of our community come to enjoy,” said Ms. Webster.  

“The older community particularly love it and dress up and enjoy catching up with friends over a cuppa and a chat. These are the moments that we love and the fact we are making money to assist local cancer patients at the same time is a real bonus,” said Lyn. 

With over 2700 Can Assist branches in 55 rural towns, the organisation provides care, comfort and compassion, that was envisaged by the society’s founder Mona Campbell Ham in the 1950’s. 

Mona Ham was a trained Nurse and her husband a Doctor and the pair were witnessing first-hand the struggles of rural cancer patients attempting to obtain health care miles and miles from home.  

Mrs. Ham began serving tea and biscuits to those undergoing radiotherapy treatment so they would at least feel as though somebody cared about them. This was an initial step but both Dr. and Mrs. Ham felt much more needed to be done.  

Their ultimate vision was to provide subsidised travel and accommodation in Sydney for visiting cancer patients, support them during care and assist with financial distress as a result of cancer.  

In 1961 the Jean Colvin Cancer Hostel ( Jean played a pivotal role in the Orange Branch of Can Assist) was purchased which allowed many rural patients to stay somewhere where the Hams hoped they would feel at home. 

Soon after it was decided that the committee’s work should be taken into the areas where the patients came from and the first country branch was formed in Forbes, closely followed by Goulburn growing across NSW to the 55 country branches today. 

“Volunteers are the heart and soul of our grass roots organisation.” 

Can Assist is a voluntary run organisation and so many rural towns now rely on their local branches to help out, in what is, for so many people, the worst time of their lives.  

“We have amazing volunteers in our local branch, who are willing to give up much of their time to help fundraise for our local cancer patients. It is a team effort and shows the love and kindness that small towns radiate. We are proud of what we do and hope that it helps our community cancer sufferers in a small way as they battle the disease day in day out,” said Ms. Webster. 

“Thank you to everyone who supported our High Tea and our organisation. We are so very grateful.”