Love Like Gabe founder Rachel Hilditch has pipped 12 other contenders to be named 2022 Terrigal Woman of the Year.
Hilditch started the charity in November last year after losing her 13-year-old son to a rare and aggressive brain cancer.
“When Gabe was diagnosed in July, 2016, he was a fit 11-year-old surfer boy from Avoca,” Hilditch said.
“He had a two year battle involving intense chemotherapy and radiation, as well as rehabilitation after he suffered a stroke.”
In May, 2018, Gabe suffered a relapse and passed away on July 2, 2018, at the age of 13.
“He had a massive heart and was always concerned about the rest of the family, even with all he was going through,” Hilditch said.
“It is still incredibly hard living without him but two years after he died I had an epiphany to try to help others going through a similar thing, talking about kindness and how things change with loss.”
From this, Love Like Gabe was born.
“So many people had helped me along my journey and I thought, ‘I have to give back and leave a legacy for Gabe’,” Hilditch said.
“Having walked the corridors of a hospital and come home too tired to cook or clean, I started the charity to help others put one foot after the other.”
After assembling close friends to get the group started and having a lawyer draw up a constitution, Hilditch launched Love Like Gabe in November last year with a raffle, which raised $10,000.
“We just want to give back to families in crisis and I’d like to be able to give some money to Randwick Children’s Hospital’s brain cancer research,” she said.
“We have a family we are helping now whose daughter had a stroke on Christmas Day … we gave a cash donation but what they probably appreciated most was us organising for the house to be cleaned every fortnight.
“We just want to provide care – physical, emotional and practical – in any way we can so that when a family is going through something like this they can feel supported.
Others nominated for the Terrigal Woman of the Year award were Allison Sharkey-Smith, Dr Yantra de Vilder, Elle Nielson, Kelly Drover, Kim McLoughry, Kristal Naividi, Marie George, Marilyn Lovell, Nada Potter, Nicole Verhoef, Norma Boag, Taia Sansom and Waverney Innes.
Hilditch said she was surprised to be nominated.
“I was taken aback because there were some amazing women there – but I did get to make some great connections with them and that was awesome,” she said.
For more details on Love Like Gabe, who it is supporting and how to get involved, go to lovelikegabe.com.
Terry Collins