Our Kids has been a part of the Lismore community for the last 23 years, and yesterday evening was the first sponsor recognition event for the popular Our House charity since before COVID struck us down in 2020.

The annual event was a celebration of businesses who have supported Our House with donations of $1000 or more and the big donors who have donated $50,000 or more in cash or in kind. There is a full list at the end of this story.

Not coincidentally, the event was also 12 years to the week that Our House first opened, giving people from all over NSW somewhere to stay while they or a family member was having cancer treatment at a very affordable rate.

"We see 1,000 guests a year, so that's over 12,000 guests we've seen since we opened the doors," said Our House Director, Rebekah Battista.

"Thank you for your contribution because those 12,000 people all represent a family, and they represent a household, and they represent a community, and most of those 12,000 people aren't actually from Lismore."

Rebekah introduced Dr Chris Ingall, the founder of Our Kids and Our House, who broke the big news that in the future, there will be an Our House II.

"What we've done is we bought next door," said a proud Dr Ingall, "That will give us a footprint of land, and it comes back to councils and car parks again, to sort out how many more we can build.

(Dr Chris Ingall and Rebekah Battista at yesterday evening's announcement)

"We're seeking out people now to put some plans together, which you will all be able to see. So we really want the community involved in this as well, but our plan is to at least double the 20 units that we have over time.

"If ever a town needed accommodation, it's Lismore, and what I like about this accommodation is that it will be connected to health, and health will be one of the ways Lismore will come back and will continue to come back. We have a great health community in this valley, the envy of many other valleys, and we want to build health, we also want to build accommodation. And this, I think, will be a win/win.

"We will have the same sorts of people who will be here now, which are patients and their families and also health staff who need to come and be locums or have a relationship with the health precinct. With a double capacity, we won't have to turn anyone away, which we rarely do, but sometimes we're really stuck, so that will start to become a thing of the past."

Dr Ingall said he and the Our House board members will be talking with the federal and state governments, talking with Lismore City Council and talking with the Local Health District to try and create a facility that will enable whoever needs health support to access it.

When it comes to how Our House II will be funded, Dr Ingall said it will be similar to how the original Our House was funded 12 years ago.

"To get Our House where it is now, we went to government for the bones of it ($3.6 million from the federal government, $500,000 from state government and $500,000 from the Cancer Council), and the large corporations around the area provided the meat on those bones ($1 million which included $220,000 from Dry July, $200,000 from the Ballina Shire Combined Services Clubs,$180,000 from the Goonellabah Senior Citizens, $105,000 from Northern Cooperative Meat Company, $101,000 from Newcastle Permanent, $68,000 from Australia Lions Foundation, the Lions Q1 Northern Rivers Community Trust and the Lismore City Lions Club), and then the community helped really put some life in the project that is what we see today.

"So, Our House now really belongs to the community, and that's exactly how we want it to be going forward with this build.

"Clearly, we're going to need support. We're going to need support for the bones of the build, and that might include federal and state government and perhaps even LHD (Local Health District) in-kind support. Once we've got all those people on the one page, then I think we can go confidently and say we've got some momentum, we're able to make this project happen, come on board with us, if you can or want to.

"We are wanting this to happen as quickly as possible, of course, but time is money, and grants don't fall off trees at your whim. But equally, it doesn't mean that we can't build to be in the right place at the right time, which is what we've always tried to do.

"It's a long game, but it's one that has worked for us and left us with no debt. This has meant that any money that we get can go to our Hardship Fund. We do not need to find money to keep the place running in that way. Yes, we've got salaries and wages and building maintenance and so forth. All of those overheads are with everyone, but we're able to say that any money that does come into Our House, we can immediately transfer it across to our Hardship Fund, which means people who are on struggle street, they get cancer, they need some treatment, can find a place in Lismore, which is close to the hospital, and it's a very therapeutic environment."

An optimistic Dr Ingall is confident that Our House II will happen, and it will double the capacity of rooms from 20 to 40 units when complete.

"We will, we will. It's just a matter of time again, but we're going to build towards that from tonight."

Below are the businesses and individuals that have generously donated cash or in-kind to help create and run Our House:

ROOMS NAMED IN HONOUR (donations over $50,000):

Ballina Foundation

Michael Primiano & Family

O'Brien Electrical and Plumbing

James Frizzle Charitable Foundation

(The Our House wall of honour)

DONORS ($1000 or more)

Rotary Club of Ballina on Richmond

Ballina RSL

Estate of Gordon Robert Day

Estate of Norma K Rice

Accepted by Guy Latham

Sommerville Laundry Lomax

Sanctuary Village Social Club

Rotary of Tenterfield

Lismore Rotary Club

Lismore Golf Club Social Fishing Club

Northern Rivers Evening Prostate Cancer Support Group

Brenda Tulk

Barry Hurren

Lismore City lions

Ballina Bowling & Recreation Club (Cherry Street Sports)

Rabbit Trappers (Cherry Street Sports)

John and Pam Murphy

Family of Christine and John Wells

Karen McDonald

Quota Club of Alstonville

Lions Club of Lismore

Ann and Paul Kennedy

Ballina Scope Club

Barbara Jones

Bob and Bev Haiser

Bob Dudgeon

Byron Bay Coffee

Casino lady Golfers

Colin and Kathleen Garnett

East Lismore Bowling Club

Felicity Carr

Geoffrey Hannah

George Priddle

Geurtje and David Anderson

Terry Daly (in memoriam)

Jan Faulkner

Kym Thornton

Kyogle Junior Rugby Club

Lions Club of Goonellabah - Wollongbar & Districts

Lismore Workers Club

Lori McIntyre

Mark Pearce

Mullumbimby High School

Natural Ice Cream Australia, Wal Foster

Peter Gow Electrical - Damien and Annika Dabrowski

Peter Gow Electrical - Peter and Leanne Gow

Quota Club Lismore

Selina O'Laughlan

Shirley McMullin

Sunshine Sugar Staff

Woodenbong Campdraft Assn Inc

Workers Sports Anglers Club

Yamba City Lions