Project Devlin was born when the Southern Cross Catholic College wrote to Mundingburra Rotary club seeking community assistance for a family whose son attends the school.

 

Devlin is a resilient young man in year 9 at Southern Cross. At the tender age of 8 he was diagnosed with bone cancer resulting in the loss of the lower half of his right leg. Following his surgery, Devlin and his family had to relocate to Brisbane for him to undertake pediatric oncology for 12 months.

 

The family  has since returned home to Townsville, where he regularly needs ongoing treatment, and three weeks ago had further surgery to his lower amputation.

 

Elvira is a single mum raising two children Devlin and Zita, and she is classified as Devlin’s full time carer. 12 months ago her 20 year old car gave up the ghost to the point the vehicle was scrapped. Since then she has been relying upon the gracious help of a neighbour to lend her a car.

 

Mundingburra Rotary proposed Project Devlin as a community service mission for our club to adopt. The plan included a financial contribution from Elvira herself, financial support of RC of Townsville, and RC of Townsville Sunrise as project partners, and an application for a Rotary Australia Compassionate Grant, and of course the RC of Mundingburra as project managers to purchase a new vehicle.

 

To satisfy their transport needs we identified the Mitsubishi Outlander as an ideal solution to accommodate Devlin’s wheelchair being the main issue for the family, and subsequently approached Pickerings Mitsubishi who assisted us for the supply of a new Outlander. 

 

See over for more photos of the handover event which occurred on Saturday 17th October 2020