CHERUBS Australia
Inaugural Get Together - Saturday 10th November 2001

After a lot of interest was shown throughout the CHERUBS Australian group, a decision to hold a national Get Together was made. A lot of effort went into planning and organising the get together held in Melbourne, Victoria, resulting in a wonderful day.

Our group is still relatively small with approximately 35 families. We had a total of 23 people attend the get together, with not everyone being able to stay for the whole day as well as dinner. We were very happy to have such wonderful support from our members. Australia is a large country making it difficult for members to attend when it is held so far from home. Our future plans include holding an annual get together in a different state each year.

We spent the morning of the get together sharing our stories and getting to know each other over coffee and cake. We broke for lunch returning to a ceremony held to honour and celebrate all of our cherubs.

The ceremony began with the lighting of a candle followed by a reading of a poem written in memory of one of our cherubs, Rhian. Next we played a song, “Together Again” by Janet Jackson, in memory of the Aussie cherubs who could not stay with us. A Dedication written for one of our cherubs, Harlee, was read to celebrate the lives of our surviving cherubs and the highlight of the day followed. One of our survivors, 4-year-old Madeline, performed a song and tap dance for us. The number chosen was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, however OUR little STAR threw in a number of encores that included Baa Baa Black Sheep and Rock a Bye Baby. We won’t be surprised to see Miss Madeline’s name up in lights one day – but to us, she will always be a star . All of our Aussie cherubs names were then read out with a lovely piece of music played in the background. The ceremony was completed with a slide show presentation. This included photos of our Aussie cherubs, their names and the song “The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me” by Gladys Knight & The Pips. A number of our members took part in the ceremony and did a wonderful job. The ceremony was simply beautiful with tissues being passed around throughout!

We had a craft activity set up for the afternoon. We made Christmas decorations to be taken home where we were then able to add a photo of our cherub and hang onto our trees come December. During this we discussed the future of our group and how we could best reach other Australian families affected by CDH. Some of the ideas and decisions discussed are currently being implemented and the future for CHERUBS Australia looks bright.

We met for dinner at a local restaurant where Bailey, a 2.5-year-old survivor, stole the hearts of the waitresses with his typical cherub charm . He even managed to get himself a free bowl of ice cream! Two of our “older” cherubs, Paul 35 and Anna 16, were able to share their CDH stories. It was the first time either of them had encountered anyone else born with CDH. It was wonderful to watch the two of them engrossed in conversation – finally having found someone who could understand what they were talking about!
A tired and emotionally drained group of people finally said good night at 11:00pm. A couple of families met up the next day for an outing, with the rest of us heading for home.

A huge thank you to all of the members who helped organise the day and thank you to those that attended to make it the great success that it was. We are all eagerly looking forward to next year .

Our inaugural CHERUBS Australia Get Together has officially gone down as a success!


Comments from attending members

I cannot begin to express my gratitude. Saturday was wonderful and personally very needed. Life has a way of sucking you into the mundane things. Although, you know what is important all the other things still need to get done. Like paying the bills, the ironing and you can somehow hide in all this. Thank you again, Anabel, mum of Julia.

Thanks for such a fantastic day on Saturday. Everything was so nicely planned out. It was great to finally put faces to names and meet new people. Everything went
smoothly, thanks again. Lynda, mum of Bailey.

I just want to say congratulations - you did a WONDERFUL job with the
Get-Together and I know that everyone present appreciated all the hard work
that was put into it. Saturday was a truly memorable day (even if it was
rather emotional). It was a great success! For my part, it was amazing to see other CDH kids and to spend time with Mums that have been through exactly (and more) than what I went through.... finally!!!! You begin to think you are the only person in the world who knows about diaphragmatic hernias! From just our little family's point of view, you must be able to see the worth of this wonderful support group!!! I have waited almost 35 years to spend time with families who understand
what our family has been through... but it was worth it and I am so glad
that we found Cherubs. Llona, mum of Paul.

I wanted to congratulate you on organising a successful get together for statewide Australian cherub families. It was wonderful to share our stories with people who actually understood the terminology, and of course the emotional stress. Thanks and Congratulations - I look forward to going to the next one! Sue, mum of Henry.

Thanks so much for giving us this chance to share our grief, our joy and our stories. It means so much to us all! Judy, mum of Harlee