The Orange branch of the over-40s social motorcycle group Ulysses Club has thrown a little welcome financial support to local cancer patient charity Can Assist.

Prior to setting out on their weekly ride last Wednesday, November 1, club members presented Can Assist Orange President Julie Goodacre (formerly Julie Corby) with a cheque for $1,000 raised through the group's weekly raffles.

“The motto of the Ulysses Club is ‘grow old disgracefully’ but we're not actually a particularly disgraceful bunch,” Ulysses Club Orange Secretary Lee Cook said of the local group.

“Each week when we meet and at our monthly dinners, we have raffles and everyone gets a bit of a prize, a bit of chocolate or wine, and we always end up with the surplus which we regularly donate,” he explained.

“The Ulysses Club hub has a standard charity that supports the Rheumatoid Arthritis Foundation, and we've been happy to support that, but our committee recently thought, let's do something with a local charity.

“We actually have a couple of our members with ongoing issues with cancer at the moment — so it's a bit close to our hearts — and we thought it would be very useful to support Can Assist which we know is doing a really good job here in Orange.” 

Founded in 1995, Can Assist is a grassroots, community charity that works to give financial assistance to cancer patients to ease the burden while they undergo treatment.

“We pay their accounts, basically,” Can Assist Orange President Julie Goodacre said. “We pay anything. We pay rates, electricity, and food vouchers. They've been really important at the moment; people are really struggling with huge, huge electricity and gas accounts. And of course, the priority is absolutely medication. We pay about 20 or 30 pharmacy accounts every month.” 

In order to support people with cancer, Can Assist relies on donations and local fundraising.

“We have a wonderful team of volunteers and we have a monthly fundraiser at Duntryleague, our trivia nights… but, look, we're so grateful for people like Ulysses who support us very much,” Julie said.

“It's very dear to my heart. So many people are touched by cancer. You cannot believe how many referrals we are getting at the moment… we would have had three new referrals this week, and all the money we raise stays local.” 

Julie said that if you or someone you know with cancer is struggling to make ends meet, get in touch and see if Can Assist can help. Visit www.canassist.org.au for more information.