Helping, bit by bit: Comfort Quilts Against Cancer 12 years on

In 2012, Bronwyn Dunn and three friends began making quilts for breast cancer patients, an operation which started in her kitchen in Northam.

Now, 12 years after its inception, Comfort Quilts Against Cancer has given more than 4000 quilts to people who need them, and the charity is not showing any signs of slowing down.

Through the not-for-profit charity, people can anonymously nominate someone undergoing treatment or recovering from cancer to receive a quilt, which is delivered to the person free of charge.

Ms Dunn founded the charity after losing her friend, Monica, to complications from breast cancer in 2011.

“You seem to have that one best friend in the world that, no matter where you are, you can pick up the phone and it’s like you’re in the kitchen talking,” Ms Dunn said.

“That was (Monica).”

After Monica’s death, Ms Dunn called on some friends to lend a hand and make quilts for breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

When her kitchen eventually got too small, Ms Dunn and her team migrated to York’s Uniting Church Hall, before moving to a building at the Muresk Institute.

But operations and volunteer numbers kept growing, and in 2022, Ms Dunn secured a building in Northam on a peppercorn rent, and the main workshop has been there ever since.

The volunteers are now getting ready to open a craft op shop at the building, on top of plans to open a community garden.

“It’s become, in a way, a community of its own,” Ms Dunn said.

“I didn’t expect it to grow like this, I really didn’t.

“I’m amazed, and I’m proud of how it’s grown, and it just means the world to so many people.”

Ms Dunn said the workshop had a constant flow of people from areas like Perth, York and Clackline coming and going, busily getting into work to make and mail out quilts, knitwear and care packages every day.

There are volunteers who have been a part of the charity for a decade or more.

“They are here because they believe in what we do. They believe in why we do it, and they want to help, and we will take all the help we can get,” Ms Dunn said.

Maureen King, who lives just outside of Northam, has been volunteering for Comfort Quilts Against Cancer for 10 years, after she met Ms Dunn at a National Breast Cancer Awareness event.

She said it was rewarding knowing how happy people felt after receiving a quilt.

“Some of the replies and thankyou letters we get is really lovely and beautiful,” she said.

Ms Dunn said there had been an overwhelming amount of letters and donations from people who had received quilts, and it reminded her of why she started the charity in the first place.

One letter that stuck with Ms Dunn came from a country mum who had contracted breast cancer and had to drive into Perth to receive treatment.

She had four children, all under the age of six, and when she received a quilt, she sent Ms Dunn a thankyou letter.

“You get letters like that and think, ‘How can I stop doing it?’ You just can’t. It’s too important,” Ms Dunn said.

Ms Dunn also said she had received feedback from people whose loved ones were buried with their quilts, or had their quilts draped over their coffins before passing them on to family and friends.

“The quilts don’t just help the person who’s going through cancer, they help the family. When and if they pass on, that quilt is always there, and somebody in the family will get that quilt,” Ms Dunn said.

Ms Dunn has called on more people to nominate loved ones who would benefit from a quilt being sent to them, because she wants to make sure everyone across the country is aware of the charity.

As an example, Ms Dunn said the charity had only delivered 15 quilts to Australia’s North West in 12 years.

“You cannot tell me that only 15 people in the North West have had cancer … but because we’re not getting out there, we aren’t getting the names in,” she said.

Ms Dunn said there was always a quilt ready for someone who needed it most.

“We believe that every quilt somehow has its own home,” she said.

While the workshop is in Northam, the charity receives donations from people and groups all across Australia, and Ms Dunn said they were always looking for people from anywhere to join and lend a hand, no matter what their skill set and no matter where they were at in life.

“We’re positioned in the Wheatbelt, but we don’t (just) work in the Wheatbelt. We work Australia-wide,” she said.