Every year, 750 families in Australia receive the devastating news their child has cancer.

The impact of this diagnosis extends far beyond the child and their immediate family. It hits their entire community of loved ones – from day-care friends to high school teachers, neighbours down the road and to the coaches of their sport teams.

For these sick kids, instead of play dates there are appointments and instead of sleepovers there are stays.

It’s during this difficult time that every family wants to know they have extraordinary healthcare professionals in their corner, working hard to make a difference to lives of sick kids.

Healthcare heroes like Dr Yuyan Chen.

Dr Yuyan Chen, Translational Biologist, Children’s Cancer Research Unit at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

Funds raised from our annual community event, Walk for Kids with Cancer has supported Dr Chen’s position as a researcher in the Children’s Cancer Research Unit for several years.

Dr Chen works side-by-side with oncologists at the Cancer Centre for Children at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Every day her work helps ensure sick kids have access to possibly life-saving cancer treatments, now and into the future.

When oncologists believe a child’s cancer may have a certain type of mutation, they will ask Dr Chen to investigate the patient’s cells in the lab.

Why is this important? Well, it means her results can help oncologists provide more tailored and effective treatments that are best suited to that child’s type of cancer.

In fact, a few years ago, Dr Chen was one of the first people in the WORLD to discover a particular mutation associated with neuroblastoma. Her breakthrough meant other teams could develop medications that targeted this change in the gene.

Dr Chen and her family complete their Walk for Kids with Cancer (2021).

While the incredible work of clinicians like Dr Chen has already made a life-changing difference, fundraising will help ensure kids with cancer continue to have access to the extraordinary care they need and deserve.

Registrations are now open for Walk for Kids with Cancer 2023.

Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation is now calling on our Movement of Many to join our annual scenic journey from The Rocks to Balmoral (13km), or Manly (27km) on Sunday 26 March 2023 and help continue our fight against childhood cancer.