Good Friday Appeal a cause close to Kyabram's heart

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For Mick and Sharon Crompton, their involvement in the Good Friday Appeal is more than just a way to raise funds for a good cause.

Having led The Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal charge for Kyabram Fire Brigade for the last 12 years, Mick and Sharon have a strong personal connection to the cause.

When their son Kayne was born 15 years ago, their family soon became all too familiar with The Royal Children’s Hospital. Diagnosed not long after birth with Hydrocephalus, or fluid on the brain, Kayne required multiple trips to the Children’s before his first birthday.

“At three months of age, my son Kayne was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus, which is fluid on the brain. He’d been down at The Royal Children’s Hospital for some regular check-ups, and they had scheduled in some surgery to insert a tube into his brain to basically drain the fluid away,” said Mick.

“At nine months of age he became critically ill, so ended up back at the hospital where the schedule surgery was brought forward and they put a shunt tube in to drain the fluid.”

Now 15, Kayne is thriving, and has even followed in his parents’ footsteps by joining up as a junior with Kyabram Fire Brigade.

“He’s come in leaps and bounds,” Mick said. “Other than a few emergency trips here and there to the hospital, occasionally by plane, he’s doing really well.”

Mick said that taking part in the Good Friday Appeal each year is an important activity for the Kyabram team.

“The Good Friday Appeal is an event that our members are passionate to support and obviously raise as much money as we can and beat the previous year’s total.

“The Royal Children’s Hospital is a world class facility with world class equipment, which makes it vitally important that as an organisation we all band together and support the Appeal in any way we can.

“We are forever grateful to the team at The Royal Children’s Hospital who performed the surgery that ultimately saved Kayne’s life, this alone is what keeps us inspired each and every year.”

Find out more about how your brigade can get involved with the appeal here.