WELLINGTON Point teenager Luke Spalding is calling on the Redlands community to help him buy iPads for children with cancer who will spend Christmas Day in hospital.
Luke, 16, was himself diagnosed with desmoplastic small round cell tumours a rare and aggressive form of cancer shortly after his 14th birthday.
When Redland City Bulletin recently spoke with Luke, who has inoperable tumours in his lungs, he was only hours away from undergoing major surgery to stop his lungs from collapsing.
He said after meeting another Brisbane child last year who had the same cancer he did, he wanted to buy the six-year-old an iPad to help keep her amused in hospital.
Luke said he put a call out via social media for fundraising support and quickly raised enough money to buy 17 iPads one for every child who spent Christmas Day last year in the oncology ward at Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital.
"I've never had to spend Christmas in hospital, but I've got my phone and I've seen how much that helps with keeping in touch with the outside world and for playing games and stuff," he said.
"I just thought it would be awesome to help everyone out and give everyone something to do while they're in here."
A passionate motorsport racer, Luke said he was determined to recover in time to compete in a car race being held at Phillip Island four weeks after his surgery, and to help more children with cancer this Christmas.
"Twenty (iPads) would be an awesome number to have for this year and maybe next year we could go bigger and better and go to more hospitals," he said.
"If people can help by donating, that would be great.
"Every dollar goes towards the iPads and it all helps massively."
To donate to Luke's 'iPads for kids with cancer at Christmas' project, visit this page
