A winning combination of pyjamas and chocolate biscuits has been a boost for local people doing it tough.
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Wauchope Public School has raised $1341 in support of the Mid North Coast Cancer Institute at Port Macquarie following an enormously successful Tim Tam Jim Jam Day.
Organised by 'lollipop lady' Heather Innes and teacher Lyn McWhirter, the fundraiser on 8 November saw students, teachers, ancillary staff and volunteers part with a gold coin in exchange for a couple of Tim Tam biscuits while getting the chance to wear pyjamas for the day.
Mrs Innes said everyone had a fun day while supporting a very worthy cause.
"We wanted to do something to support local cancer patients," Mrs Innes said.
"Our school community has been sadly affected by cancer. We've lost some beautiful teachers in Margaret Barlin, Maree Hunt, Sylvie Tola and Karen Gavel and two lovely Teachers Aides in Annie Oakley-Bull and Geoff Parker.
"We also have teachers who have survived cancer.
"We just felt we have to do something. If I had one wish it would be that there was no cancer," said Mrs Innes, who lost her partner Trevor Nikitin to the disease 10 years ago.
School Principal Cameron Osborne said he was extremely proud of the school community for supporting such an important cause.
The funds raised will be used to purchase a scanner for one of the cancer unit's new vital signs monitors, said Nursing Unit Manager Jenny Baroutis.
"The equipment is part of our Smarter, Safer Vitals Monitoring project, which uses wireless technology to interface and integrate the unit's vital signs monitors with an oncology-specific medical records system," Ms Baroutis said.
"The scanner eliminates the need for nurses to transcribe patient observations, such as blood pressure, to a central data base and, therefore, eliminates human error during the transcription process.
"It also enables 'real time' clinical decisions to be based on accurate and immediate patient observations, and nurses have more time to spend with their patients as a result of the technology.
"The Mid North Coast Cancer Institute developed the program, and is the first cancer centre in the world to use this technology to integrate vital signs monitoring. And we wouldn't have been able to embark on this exciting project had it not been for community support from donors such as Wauchope Public School.
"We are enormously grateful for the support because it makes a real difference to our patients."
