This wonderful man is my father, Colin Smith – known to his beloved grandchildren as ‘Wudzy”.

Tragically, after a brief battle with cancer, Wudzy passed away due to ‘complications’ in November 2015. He was such an incredible man, who meant the world to me, so I wanted to do something significant to honour him – so that his name would live on and something extraordinary would result from his death –  so that he did not die in vain. 

They were doing great work for cancer patients from around the world, helping those who had been given no hope or help elsewhere. At the time I felt that people everywhere needed to know that places like this exist, so those who desperately needed help may be able to get it. However, this treatment is expensive and as such not everyone would be able to afford it. This felt unfair to me, so I decided I would do what I could to change things – and this would be my Dad’s legacy. 

My purpose in life is now to help cancer patients do all they can to beat the disease, by helping them get access to the best treatment available for their specific cancer – wherever that may be in the world – and to help them pay for it. 

Cancer is a horrendous disease that experts predict will affect 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women in their lifetime – and the cost of treatment can be extremely high – sometimes prohibitively so. Particularly for the people that may need treatment outside of what is available through their government funded health system. However, even then, it is still extremely costly, especially when most people’s source of income is reduced or eliminated during treatment. Many people simply can’t afford the treatment they desperately need and that is a tragedy.

I recently saw a news story reporting that one Australian family travelled to the US for treatment for their son who had a rare form of brain cancer. The cost of having this treatment and travelling overseas was an incredible $600,000.00. Family, friends and donors had helped that family raise the money for this life-saving treatment. There are thousands of stories like this, where patients need money for treatment that they just cannot afford and reluctantly need to ask others for help – which no one wants to do.

Over 1.2 billion dollars is raised for cancer research in Australia each year. This is important and much-needed work if we are to cure cancer in the future. But precious little is actually raised for the patients who have cancer now and desperately need help to pay for their treatment and/or to help pay for living expenses that continue to mount up whilst a patient undergoes treatment. I aim to change that and redress the balance if I can.    

There are already so many ‘Go Fund Me’ pages and the like out there, that I didn’t want to add to that. Rather, I wanted to ease the burden of these types of things if possible, so that fewer patients needed to ask friends and family for assistance. Importantly, I also want the money to go straight to the people who needed it most. 

I found that there was a critical need for an organisation that advocates for cancer patients and offered full circle solutions. In my mind that included: 

• helping patients find and get access to the best treatment available for each individual and their unique form of cancer, so that they may be given the best chance to return to optimal health and lead long, happy, healthy and fulfilled lives

• if needed, help them pay for this treatment and the living expenses that pile up when a patient and/or their carer is unable to work due the patient undergoing treatment or simply being too unwell.

• building a world-leading Holistic Cancer Treatment Centre that combines under the one roof the best of traditional cancer treatment and cutting-edge, safe, evidence-based alternative and holistic therapies, so that patients can get the best treatment available – all in the one place.

So I set about coming up with a way to generate money to help pay for this life saving treatment, a way to connect patients to world leading experts that could give them the treatment they need to return them to optimal health and a mechanism by which patients could apply for assistance and we could distribute the funds needed. 

To achieve this I have set up a company called Wudzy Inc. – which is made up of four (4) seperate arms that are linked by purpose – these are: 

  Wudzy App

The Wudzy App, was my first idea for raising money for cancer patients. I needed a way of generating a continuous, passive stream of income with minimal overheads and I felt an app might be a good way to achieve this. Perhaps easier said than done! I already had what I thought was a pretty good idea for an app, as I had found there was a glaring gap in the market and wondered why someone had not already built such a useful app. The concept behind the app has universal and global appeal and as such has the potential to raise a lot of money. I decided I would build it myself and if it was as successful as I hoped, I would be able to donate a large percentage of the profits to cancer patients in need as I had planned.  This was an exciting prospect, as the Wudzy app would be a true innovation in the fundraising space and one that sets us apart from most – if not all – other charities.

Most fundraising initiatives rely on a one-off, or series of annual events, that require a great deal of time, effort and resources to run in order to raise money for their cause. Or they rely on the generosity of philanthropists and benefactors. The Wudzy app requires none of that and this is one of the many ways Wudzy Inc. stands out from the crowd. It’s global appeal and the fact that all the work has been done in building the app, makes this idea a rare and valuable asset in the crowded fundraising space, where charities are constantly jostling and vying for coveted donor funds. The Wudzy app – by virtue of generating its own funds – removes the burden of yet another charity asking for donations from a public already bombarded and overwhelmed with requests for money. It’s a very important point of difference and one we are extremely proud of. 

 Wudzy AFL Basketball Game

To introduce Wudzy Inc. to the world I also came up with an idea for an event to serve as a launch and ongoing promotion for the Wudzy App – conveniently it could also work as stand-alone fundraising event to raise more money for our very important cause. Thus, the annual ‘Wudzy AFL Basketball Game’ was born. 100% of the profits raised through the game are donated through our nominated charity – Chicks for Charity – to cancer patients who desperately need assistance. (In time we will register our own charity – the Wudzy Foundation.) The Inagural Wudzy AFL Basketball Game was played on January 16th, 2019 at the State Basketball Centre in Melbourne, Victoria and by all accounts was a resounding success.

AFL and basketball were my Dad’s favourite sports, so I came up with an idea of combining the two, that I felt was unique and interesting and would hopefully appeal to many others in Melbourne who also have an appreciation for both sports. After all, few things are more popular than AFL and basketball in Victoria – Melbourne in particular – being the sporting capital of the world.