We are a small committed team supporting the paediatric oncology community in Queensland, Northern NSW, Northern Territory and the Pacific Islands. We are also supported by our wonderful, skilled volunteers who help us to provide additional support to our families where it is needed.
If you wish to join our volunteering team email us at info@ccs.org.au to express your interest in becoming a volunteer at Childhood Cancer Support.
Helen Crew
Helen joined Childhood Cancer Support as our General Manager in March 2016. She has more than 30 years experience working within the charitable sector.
Her long-term career goal and passion was to work with a charity supporting ill children and their families so she is very privileged to have been given this opportunity to help support our paediatric oncology families, represent Childhood Cancer Support and lead the team.
The early part of Helen’s career was within the construction, security and engineering industries. Just prior to joining the charitable sector, Helen worked with a major construction company on the redevelopment and refurbishment of Daydream Island. Helen has been instrumental in setting up professional administrative processes, policies, procedures and human resources systems for a number of organisations. Her broad expertise includes finance, governance, human resources, grant writing, fundraising, event management and operations. Helen worked a total of 13 years at Australian Spinal Research Foundation in administration, research grant funding, finance, operations and conference management.
Helen was formerly Chief Executive Officer of Parkinson’s Queensland where she secured three years of recurrent funding from Federal and State Governments, worked with interstate executive colleagues on the organisation’s national rebranding, increased the support group network by 40% across Queensland and revised all operational processes.
Helen is very appreciative of the role that family plays in support of our paediatric oncology families, is passionate about the work of Childhood Cancer Support and the support provided to our families, and readily acknowledges the support of her own family in the important work that she does – her husband David and their two adult children Cassandra and Nicholas.
Monique van Zelm Felix
Monique has a Masters in Social Work and has been working with families and their children since she started her career, in various social work roles and across differing areas of practice. She has significant experience working with people with disabilities, chronic illness and experiencing mental health issues. Monique has worked exclusively with not-for-profit organisations in Queensland, which has included work in regional and remote communities funded by Queensland Health. Monique has worked across all levels of these organisations, right through from on the ground family support to governance board and managerial positions.
Monique is a married Mum to two beautiful kids, lives in Brisbane and in 2019 returned from living in Brazil for a few years. She is passionate about her community and loves to be with people.
Monique joined Childhood Cancer Support in July 2019 as the Family Social Worker. Monique’s role is to walk alongside all the family members that stay with Childhood Cancer Support as they are having their treatment and beyond. Monique offers practical, therapeutic and general supports to families, which include counselling, parent, sibling and extended family support, informal opportunities for families to meet each other and assistance to access other supports as required. Monique works with people to identify the best that they can do, on any given day, and in this role assists families to:
Trish Smyth
Trish joined Childhood Cancer Support in June 2022 and feels privileged to become a recent member of the team. As Accommodation and Support Services Officer she will be working in a part-time capacity providing all accommodation and non-clinical support services to our paediatric oncology families.
Trish has previously worked at the Ronald McDonald House Charities for nearly 7 years as a Family Experience Worker. She is passionate about supporting paediatric oncology families in her new position and looking forward to helping and supporting them on their difficult journey.
Trish moved to Australia with her family 18 years ago. She has worked in the corporate world in Australia, England and Ireland for most of her working life. Trish has a broad working knowledge including Fundraising (Event Management & Operations), Personal Assistant, Administration, Accounts, Office Management, Banking Systems, Human Resources. She is also a Feng Shui Consultant.
She is very excited to be a part of the wonderful staff and volunteer team at Childhood Cancer Support and is looking forward to supporting families in a supportive and nurturing home environment.
Mark Robbins
Mark joined the Childhood Cancer Support team in February 2022.
Mark has numerous skills to his name including trade qualified boiler maker, Baker and grandad. He has worked as a Maintenance Manager for OneSteel Queensland specialising in occupational health and safety, asset management and heavy machinery safety. With 15 years’ experience in property maintenance and management he is looking forward to being able to make improvements where he can.
Mark is excited to be able to ensure the comfort and safety of all our guests while they are staying with us. Mark is a leukaemia survivor and has an understanding of what treatments can be like for the recipients and would like the chance to make things just that little bit more comfortable for them.
He has worked in the maintenance industry for places such as Christian Brothers’ group of schools, Shearwater resort in Port Sorrel, Tasmania, Westpac Bank, Noosa Heads and Big 4 Parks Queensland. His passion for repairing all that makes life comfortable will surely be of benefit to all at Childhood Cancer Support.
Pat Hooper
Pat commenced with Childhood Cancer Support in June 2019 as our Community Fundraising & Events Officer. Pat’s main responsibility is to create and execute a community fundraising strategy aimed to increase revenue whilst expanding the profile of Childhood Cancer Support within the community.
Pat will be looking to recruit, engage and maintain relationships with community fundraisers to ensure they are supported throughout their fundraising activities. As well as being responsible for all aspects of event coordination from the initial inception and scoping, through to delivery, of our signature events.
Pat comes to Childhood Cancer Support with over 18 years’ experience as a community fundraiser previously working with the Leukaemia Foundation for 14 years and the Endeavour Foundation for 4 years. During this time Pat was responsible for the roll out of large scale national fundraising campaigns and events at a local level most notably World’s Greatest Shave which exceeds $17 million in revenue. Pat also led a team of regional fundraising staff assisting them to reach their regional targets.
Pat started her fundraising career in Bundaberg with the Endeavour Foundation. Pat has also been a small business operator before returning to the not for profit sector with the Leukaemia Foundation in Bundaberg, later transferring to Brisbane in 2011.
Pat is excited about sharing her knowledge of the not for profit fundraising with Childhood Cancer Support and would love to speak with anyone interested in supporting this amazing family charity.
Jo Spencer
Jo began working for Childhood Cancer Support in June 2005 in the role of Finance Officer as a contractor and, in 2019, in addition to managing our finances she began managing the administrative roles for Childhood Cancer Support.
Jo is responsible for maintaining the financial, accounting and administrative operations for Childhood Cancer Support whilst ensuring that legislative requirements are met. She also ensures that our families are well looked after during their stay in our short-term accommodation facility.
Having started her career in 2001, working as a bookkeeper with a reputable Accounting Firm, Jo began working as a sub-contract bookkeeper before joining the team at Childhood Cancer Support. In order to meet legislative requirements, and to remain compliant, Jo completed her Certificate IV in Financial Services (Bookkeeping) and in 2010 she became registered with the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) as a registered BAS Agent (Registration #98766002). She has continued to manage a small client base whilst working at Childhood Cancer Support for 4 days per week.
Prior to working in finance, Jo worked for over 10 years as a primary school teacher, bringing with her a wide range of skills and experience that have been well utilised in her work at Childhood Cancer Support.
(07) 3844 5000
info@ccs.org.au
