This tough little bloke wants your help and is asking Hastings residents to paint the town gold in September for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Gold is the colour recognised nationally and internationally with childhood cancer.

The campaign is held each year and unites children’s cancer organisations around the globe, highlighting the need for further research.

Austin was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia on April 24, 2017, and spent months living at Ronald McDonald House in Newcastle with his parents, Alana and Nathan, while receiving treatment.

A fortnight before Christmas, Austin was given the good news that he was able to begin maintenance treatment and was allowed to return home to Port Macquarie.

Since then treatment has continued, and some trips to the hospital for the common cold have also impacted on little Ozzie, but each day the family strive to lead a life as normal as possible.

"We've had a few viruses, the common cold and that sort of thing," she said. 

"Someone with a normal functioning immune system would just feel sick, but for Ozzy we have to get him straight up to the hospital for a week. 

"But we try to keep it as normal as possible for Ozzy. We get him out and about, but you can never be complacent in anything you do."

Alana said the devastating illness affects many families and wants to spread the word about Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

"That's the main thing I want to speak about; the fact that there are so many families suffering from cancer," she said.

"It's not only kids with the disease, it’s the other children in the family as well. 

"Everybody feels like it won't ever happen to them, but you just never know. To see your child suffer, there's nothing worse.

“Never knowing the outcome, which no-one really knows in life anyway, but for the kids facing this it's just not fair."

In Australia, three children die from cancer each week. Childhood cancers remain the most common cause of disease-related deaths for children aged 0-14 in Australia, according to Cancer Council Australia.

More than 950 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer each year. About 150 of them will have a cancer with less than a 30 per cent survival rate, and a further 60 will relapse and then have less than a 30 per cent chance of surviving.

While childhood cancer is devastating for the child, family and community affected by a diagnosis, there is some positive news. 

Data from the Australian Paediatric Cancer Registry, funded and managed by Cancer Council Queensland, shows that the overall childhood cancer survival rate around the country is increasing.

It is why research – and funds for that research - is vital.

"The Children's Cancer Institute fund some very important studies; ones that could potentially change the outcome of children's cancer research forever," Alana said.

"It's all about turning local businesses gold for the month of September to raise awareness and money for research."

For more information on the campaign, or to purchase gold merchandise to support the cause, visit www.thekidscancerproject.org.au