It has always been about the kids.
For more than 46 years, Child Cancer Research Foundation (CCRF) has brought people together around one purpose: to improve the lives and futures of children and young people affected by cancer.
From the parents who helped begin our story in 1980, to the researchers, families, survivors, donors, volunteers and supporters who continue it today, generations of people have shared a belief that children with cancer deserve better.
Better treatments. Better outcomes. And every opportunity for a full life beyond cancer.
Research has always been at the heart of our work
CCRF was born from a need for better answers.
When nine-year-old Jennifer Harper was diagnosed with leukaemia in 1977, her father Peter discovered there was no childhood leukaemia research taking place in Western Australia. Together with other parents and supporters, he set out to change that. Their determination led to the formation of the fundraising committee in 1980 that would ultimately become Child Cancer Research Foundation.
More than four decades later, that determination remains.
CCRF continues to fund research seeking better treatments and better outcomes for children and young people with cancer. Across our history, the research we have supported has contributed to advances in understanding childhood cancers and improving outcomes for children in Western Australia, across Australia and beyond.
Explore the research we support →
Survival changes the question. It doesn’t end it.
Research has helped transform outcomes for many childhood cancers. Children who once had little chance of survival are growing up, reaching milestones and building lives of their own.
But survival can come with challenges that continue long after treatment ends.
The physical, emotional and social impacts of childhood cancer and its treatment can follow young people into adolescence and adulthood. That is why, alongside our ongoing commitment to research, CCRF is also working to improve what comes next.
Through our AYA Survivorship Program, we are beginning to respond to the needs of young people navigating life beyond childhood cancer.
We want children to survive cancer. We also want them to have every opportunity to thrive beyond it.
Discover AYA Survivorship →
The people behind the progress
Research doesn’t happen in isolation.
It takes researchers willing to ask difficult questions. Families willing to share their experiences. Donors who believe an answer is worth searching for. Volunteers who give their time. Partners who invest in possibility. Survivors who use their voices. And people who quietly keep showing up, year after year.
Some have been part of CCRF for a moment. Others for decades.
Together, they have built an organisation grounded not only in research, but in relationships.
Our long-serving Chair Geoff Cattach AM once summed up what mattered most in just a few words:
“It’s about the kids.”
That belief has travelled through generations of CCRF. It has guided the people who built the Foundation, the researchers whose work we have supported, and the people who continue that work today. Geoff himself served CCRF for 44 years, including 41 years as Chair. Andrea Alexander has carried that continuity through another generation, reaching 30 years with CCRF in 2026. Her anniversary reflections repeatedly return to the people behind every achievement and keeping children and families at the centre.
CTA: Discover our story →
Still here. Still searching for better.
The world of childhood cancer has changed enormously since a small group of parents and supporters came together in 1980.
So has CCRF.
But the reason we are here has not.
There are still childhood cancers where outcomes remain devastating. There are still treatments that can leave lifelong consequences. There are still questions researchers need the opportunity to answer. And there are young survivors learning what it means to live beyond a disease that changed their childhood.
So we keep going.
We fund research. We listen to lived experience. We build partnerships. We respond to emerging needs. And we bring people together who believe children and young people affected by cancer deserve better.
It was about the kids in 1980. It still is today.
Help shape what comes next.
Every breakthrough begins somewhere. With a question. A researcher. A family. A donor. Someone who decides that better is possible.
Donate now | See our impact
