News

Dainere’s Rainbow Run is an annual fundraising event that Burgmann created to help raise money and spread awareness

“On Thursday the 22nd of March, we participated with 104 other Year 12 students at Burgmann Anglican School, in a rainbow colour-filled fun run on our oval, in honour of one of our former students, Dainere Anthoney.

Dainere was the most inspiring person you could ever meet. As an 11-year-old, she was diagnosed with high risk medulloblastoma, which is a type of brain tumour. Her life sadly ended on the 24th of June 2013 at 7:25pm. She touched hearts all across Australia with her blog that she wrote, to share her story in order to give others hope and inspiration.

Dainere wanted to help end the suffering of those that have brain tumours, so no one had to suffer like she did.

Dainere’s Rainbow Run is our annual fundraising event that Burgmann created, to raise not only money, but also awareness for brain cancer research. We stencil our own shirts for the Year 12 students, and sell packets of colour to the Middle and Senior School students at our annual athletics carnival, and let them throw it at us, which ultimately ended up in a beautiful rainbow of colours in the air, and on everyone’s keepsake shirt. By selling dye, ice blocks and the shirts, we managed to raise over $1,300 during the whole event and had so much fun while doing it.

We will always love and cherish Dainere at Burgmann, and we hope we can continue in her footsteps in helping to bring an end to brain cancer and suffering in children and adults alike”.

Braam and Emma Year 12

We are feeling so extremely grateful, humbled and blessed that we had the incredible opportunity to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday at The ActewAGL Royal Canberra Show, elevating awareness of paediatric brain tumours and the work of Dainere’s Rainbow.

Being able to give members of the Community a knowledge and understanding of paediatric brain tumours, gently sharing the startling statistics of the disease, give a little hope through talking about the research that is being done, telling the reality and the experiences that a family of a child with a brain tumour go through, educating about the symptoms of a brain tumour and speaking about all the inspirational, selfless and tireless work that Dainere undertook.

The Team met a variety of extraordinary people from many different backgrounds who wanted to learn more about Dainere, paediatric brain tumours, the work of the Dainere’s Rainbow Fund and how they can assist to elevate increased awareness or support the fund into the future.

We were touched and moved by other family’s stories of how brain cancer and other cancers had affected their lives. There was one thing we all agreed on and that was that there is a definite lack of awareness and funding for brain cancer as a whole and particularly for children.

It was so special that several of Dainere’s Book ‘You Have To Go Through A Storm To Get To A Rainbow’ and ‘Theodore And Friends – Theodore Is Left Out’ were bought by people to wanted to learn a little more about Dainere’s and her courage and selflessness.

The ‘Spooktacular’ Gala Dinner attracted substantial attention, with many people extremely interested in attending. Tickets will be on sale this month and we have a feeling it will sell out very quickly.

Special gratitude to the always amazing John for his incredible creative work, it really looked splendiferous and received many comments, especially the cardboard model buses of the Qcity Transit Dainere’s Rainbow Full Wrap Bus, which is regularly seen on the roads in Canberra and Queanbeyan elevating awareness.

On Valentines Day several of the members of Dainere’s Rainbow Committee and representatives from our wonderful Corporate Partners Qcity Transit visited Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick.

The visit was an emotional one: one of sadness; one of affirmation; one of admiration; one of pride; one filled with memories and one of hope.

We were given a comprehensive update and viewed the extraordinary work being done by the phenomenal Associate Professor David Ziegler and his research Team using the valuable funds that are raised by Dainere’s Rainbow Brain Tumour Research Fund.

Associate Professor Ziegler, runs the largest laboratory in Australia dedicated to finding new treatments for childhood brain cancer. Within the CCIA he has also established a translational research group to take discoveries made in the laboratory back to the patients who desperately need new treatments.

“Funding for all of our research projects and programs depends on vital community support to allow us to offer new hope for future generations of Australian children and their families” – Associate Professor David Ziegler.

Then, it was a behind the scenes confronting and emotional tour of the paediatric oncology wards; where children courageously carry on the fight to survive and recover under the incredible care of the doctors, nurses and support staff.

We saw exhausted and worried parents who each day are by their child’s side, wishing that they could change places with them or be able to kiss them and make it all better.

The visit also was a date that in 2012 brought much heartache, as on that Valentines Day our family were told that Dainere’s cancer had spread throughout her spine and brain and that all treatment options had been totally exhausted. At the age of just fourteen, Dainere was told that she would not have much time left on this earth.

We all wish that there was much more we could do to help bring about a cure to this hideous and non-selective disease.

We will never, ever give up as we continue to do everything we possibly can to significantly increase awareness and the funds that are so desperately required to ensure the healthy survival of every single precious child diagnosed with brain cancer.

Having a Christmas Lights Display was a vision and initiative originally created by Dainere in 2012 and one she asked to be continued to bring the gift of joy and Christmas Spirit whilst elevating awareness and raising funds for vital research for paediatric brain tumours.

Many, many hours of dedicated and selfless effort took place to create the 2017 Dainere’s Rainbow Christmas Wonderland Lights Display. Although faced with some wild weather huge crowds of people attended the Lights Displays. With gratitude to My Gungahlin, The Canberra Weekly, Christmas Light Search and Riot ACT for their wonderful promotion of the lights display and to those who attended and spread the word about the lights. Gratitude is also humbly extended to Alba and Bronwyn for their generous and incredible contributions of the most unique and treasured gift and craft items for the Stall.

It was so wonderful to be able to speak to and hand out many information packs and let people know how they can help make a difference. It was extremely heart-warming the number of people who took a genuine interest which is certain to elevate a greater awareness of paediatric brain tumours within the Community.

The children and adults who visited loved been greeted by Santa Claus, who handed out special Dainere’s Rainbow Activity Books, Stickers, Magnets and Candy Canes as well as smiling for many Santa Photographs throughout the display. Seeing families walk amongst the display showing awe and excitement, the enjoyment on children’s faces of pulling out a wonderful surprise in the lucky dips, adults and children walking away so pleased and proudly clutching a gift purchased from the stall and the multitude of splendiferous photographs taken; it was truly wondrous to see.

One of the most precious gifts of the lights display was seeing the joy, togetherness and enormous smiles the lights brought to young and old. That is something when Dainere created her lights display in 2012 wanted to give to the Community, the true spirit of Christmas. We are so proud to continue this legacy to honour Dainere and are pretty sure the lights sparkled brightly all the way to heaven.

Last, but not least, we wish to thank all those in the Community who visited our Christmas Light Display, it is through your support that together we are able to give hope, contribute to research to improve outcomes, see treatments with less devastating side effects, elevate awareness and work towards the dream of one day seeing a cure become a reality.

There are some marvellous plans for the 2018 Christmas Lights Display ones that will see many new and special surprises.

This Event was organised by our wonderful Committee Members Anne and David who are members of the Andante Andante Choir Inc. AKA the ABBA Choir who hosted this incredible evening to elevate awareness of paediatric brain tumours and raise funds for Dainere’s Rainbow.

The evening saw a full house of guests who were entertained by this incredibly talented group of amazing people, feet were tapping, the entire room sang along, and the smiles and joy lit up the room. Everyone was certainly given a Christmas gift of music.

There were fabulous lucky door prizes, a raffle with the most marvellous prizes on offer and scrumptious supper. With 100% of all funds raised on the evening $699.00 supporting the dedicated and vital research of Associate Professor Ziegler and his team at Sydney Children’s Hospital Kids Cancer Centre.

Special mention and appreciation to Marilyn Gould, Judy Witherdin and Marg Wattam for their generous contribution of the gifts for the raffle and lucky door prizes and to Mark who re-donated his raffle prize and auctioning it off to raise an extra $20.

We were able to share information about the fund and the hope that we are giving to others through events like this. With heartfelt gratitude to all those who attended on the evening, without your support we would not be able to work to give hope and create change.

In July 2017 , an awareness campaign sponsored by wonderful local bus company Qcity Transit in Queanbeyan and created by the incredible team at Transit Graphics was launched.

Two special brightly coloured full bus backs to assist in creating vital awareness of Paediatric Brain Tumours, the need for increased research and funding across the wider Canberra and Queanbeyan regions were launched. The buses began to operate widely in the region down towards Cooma, up to Yass in the north, and throughout the Canberra and Queanbeyan region to the streets of Canberra and surrounding areas.

Then in September 2017, a phenomenal full wrap bus was launched. The bus was donated by local Queanbeyan Company Qcity Transit, a member of the Comfort Delgro Australia Group Pty Ltd, the wrap will be maintained for as long a possible. The wrap was applied by Screenmakers and the exceptional artwork was created by the team at Transit Graphics. The bus features the colourful artwork with crucial and important awareness messages on both sides and the rear and there are also key messages inside the bus.

Both buses were launched by Senator the Hon. Zed Seselja, Senator for the ACT who met Dainere and has shown continued support for elevating awareness of paediatric brain tumours in the Community since 2010.

And in November 2017 Transport Canberra launched a bus that will travel the streets of Canberra with another vital awarness raising full bus back. Again the artwork was provided by the wonderful team at Transit Graphics. With sincere gratitude to the amazing Meegan Fitzharris MLA for being part of this special initiative.

If you see any of the buses on your travels we invite and would absolutely love you to share a photograph and any information about where you saw them to our facebook page.

On Sunday 13th August 2017, two extraordinary men, Mark and Jarrett took on the world’s largest and gruelling 14km fun run with the infamous Heartbreak Hill; The City2Surf.

Prior to the event they had both not only dedicated a significant amount of time and effort to training for the iconic event, they had also worked passionately and selflessly to raise funds for a cause that they both hold dear, paediatric brain tumours and Dainere’s Rainbow Brain Tumour Research Fund.

The Dainere’s Rainbow Team would like to express our congratulations and humble gratitude to both Mark and Jarrett for their truly phenomenal efforts on the day.

Deepest and heartfelt gratitude must also be expressed to all those wonderful people who made donations, gave words of encouragement, shared the fundraising link or put up posters. You are all contributing to elevating awareness and raising crucial funds to improve the outcomes, give hope and create change for every single most precious child diagnosed with this horrendous disease.

It is an honour to announce that as of this evening at total of $5225.76 has been raised through Mark and Jarrett’s massive efforts, and 100% of these funds has gone directly to paediatric brain tumour research at Sydney Children’s Hospital Kids Cancer Centre. Where Associate Professor Ziegler and his team are working on significant new research that is a world first for paediatric brain tumours.

Mark and Jarrett are both extremely modest men and their thoughts and motive for the run were focused on running for a cure but they deserve special recognition for what they each achieved on the day.

Mark, the official Dainere’s Rainbow Ambassador, who ran in his second City2Surf and who only took up running in June 2015 saw his hard training and dedication pay off, as he ran a spectacular 1 hour 18 minutes and 46 seconds, smashing his 2016 time by 17 minutes. He not only did that he raised an amount over his goal of $2000. We can hardly wait to see what he can achieve in 2018, perhaps a Red Group Start time! This is an extraordinary result, and he certainly is a Dainere’s Rainbow Champion.

Jarrett, running in his 5th City2Surf, always running with Dainere in his heart and thoughts, also had his dedicated and hard training and devotion see him run an amazing time of 51:51, a personal best on the course, he came 167th overall and 49th in the 20-29 Males, all best placings. He raised over $3000 and gained a preferred elite start for the 2018 event, and he too can certainly be called a Dainere’s Rainbow Champion.

Dainere’s Rainbow Brain Tumour Research Fund Splendiferous Entertainment Extravaganza Gala Fundraising Dinner at The Ainslie Football Club was held on Saturday 17th June 2017.

This event is the major fundraiser for Dainere’s Rainbow Brain Tumour Research Fund and was held to shine a spotlight on paediatric brain cancer, the number one disease killer of children in Australia. The evening was dedicated to all children diagnosed with paediatric brain tumours and to remember and honour those children who have lost their courageous battles, those who are presently fighting and those who are survivors but have been left with devastating side effects from this horrendous disease.

The evening was made possible due to the extraordinary and charitable Major Partners: Group One, Tatts On Tatts Of, Rolfe Property Services, Qcity Transit, Regional Wholesale Fruit Market and Simeco Electrical Contractors. The event was also supported by Corporate Community Partners Transit Graphics, QCity Transit and My Gungahlin as well as many marvellous Community Partners.

The Ainslie Football Club looked absolutely incredible for this event. The Show Pony Centre Pieces and life size cardboard Marilyn Monroe and Alice Cooper set the scene for the evening and the atmosphere throughout the entire night was filled with energy, joy, laughter and excitement. The fabulous Ainslie team put on a magnificent night with the most delicious food and excellent service.

Michael Bower with his genuine, friendly and warm nature was an outstanding host for the evening. Local Real Estate Agent and auctioneer extraordinaire Jeremy Maher from Harcourts Brindabella had the guests competitively bidding on the assortment of unique and high quality items.

Throughout the evening the crowd were continually entertained by Unique Balloon Modelling by Deborah Lane, Extraordinary Face and body painting by Anne Flynn, the phenomenal Jay and The Dragonflies had the dance floor filled throughout the entire night and guests did not want the evening to end, the lovely and talented Badra Dancers had the guest mesmerised with their belly dancing and especially when they used swords on their heads, funny man Greg Kimball brought humour and laughter to the evening and the evenings incredible Special Guest Garry ‘Canberra Elvis’ Buckley had guests up and dancing and feeling like they were at an actual Elvis Concert.

Jarrett made a surprise appearance on stage, looking like and performing like a true rock star with his Jackson Guitar and honoured Dainere in a spectacular version of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer with Jay and The Dragonflies. Special mention of the spectacular sound and lighting by Nick and Hamish from Eclipse Lighting and Sound that added a truly splendiferous touch to the entire event.
With most heartfelt gratitude to all who supported the evening, which raised a massive $39,116.00 and you will be thrilled to know that unlike many other Charity Dinners 100% of those funds will go to vital and innovative research towards fulfilling Dainere’s wish of ensuring there is hope for future generations of children and their families devastated by the diagnosis of a brain tumour, the number one disease killer of children in Australia.

We are so glad to be continually give the opportunity to run the rainbow run at schools, all the kids seem to enjoy it and it is a wonderful way to spread awareness for paediatric brain cancer. Thank you to all those involved in this years rainbow run and allowing us to make it possible.

The 2016 Christmas Lights Display on the Southside and Northside of Canberra was another massive success with a phenomenal grand total of $6366.80 being raised. Putting a truly splendiferous Christmas Lights Display together takes many, many hours of dedicated effort.

Huge crowds of people attended the Lights Displays following much promotion through people like My Gungahlin, The Canberra Weekly and through social media and magnificent posters created especially by John and his team at Transit Graphics.

It was so wonderful to be able to speak to and hand out many information packs to so many people and elevate greater awareness of paediatric brain tumours within the Community.

One of the most precious gifts of the lights display was seeing the joy, togetherness and sparkle the lights brought to young and old. That is something when Dainere created her lights display in 2012 wanted to give to the Community, the true spirit of Christmas.

Enormous appreciation goes to our truly extraordinary Southside Lights Display Co-ordinator Kay and her wonderful husband Roger, they not only set up their massive outside light display, they also created a magical Christmas Display within their home including an impressive interactive display, made the most beautiful craft items and made over 200 bags of decadent rocky road.

Special and heartfelt appreciation to The Brite Notes Choir who performed each Saturday night throughout December at the Southside Lights Display from 8-10pm often doing up to four performances.

Gratitude is also humbly extended to family, friends, neighbours and Committee Members who assisted at the displays or with making items for the stalls and to Brad for decorating his home magnificently and raising funds in Ngunnawal for Dainere’s Rainbow.

Last, but definitely, not least, we wish to thank all those in the Community who visited any of our Christmas Light Display Locations, it is through your support that together we are able to give hope, contribute to research to improve outcomes, see treatments with less devastating side effects, elevate awareness and one day see a cure become a reality.