TAMWORTH residents and business houses dug deep on Saturday night to raise $30,000 for Manilla youngster Patrick Coombes in his fight against an inoperable brain tumour.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Patrick, 4, and his parents Emma and Richard Coombes were present at the fundraiser at the Oxley Bowling Club, family friend Cheryl Cruickshank said.
Mrs Cruickshank said the amount raised was “superb”.
“People are so generous, they really are – it’s amazing,” she said.
Several items were auctioned off to raise the money, including a $3000 advertising package from NBN-TV and a $1000 advertising package from radio station 2TM.
About 300 people were expected but organisers were pleasantly surprised when 380 people turned out.
“It was enormous,” Mrs Cruickshank said.
The Coombes family is originally from Wauchope but have settled in Manilla.
There have also been two fundraisers held in Manilla and a garage sale held in Wauchope to support the Coombeses.
A family fun day was held in Manilla in September, not long after Patrick was diagnosed.
And on Saturday a Tamworth radio station did an outside broadcast from the IGA supermarket in Manilla.
Mrs Cruickshank said the money would help ease the strain on dairy farmer Richard and his family.
She thanked the community and business houses on behalf of the Coombeses.
She said once the business houses had found out about the fundraiser, they rushed to help.
The Safari Club and Grill provided finger food at cost price, and 180 plates of home cooking were provided by the women from many Tamworth hockey clubs – and they were all sold.
“A good crowd of people came from Wauchope,” she said.
Patrick had taken a turn for the worse in the past week and another course of chemotherapy was due to start in November at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, she said.
The little boy’s condition had touched many people’s hearts, Mrs Cruickshank said.
“There’s nothing worse than children when they’re sick,” she said.
