Manilla Lions Club: Return and Earn fundraiser for local cancer sufferers relies on the kindness of Tamworth residents and stranger across the state

When a local woman still reeling from the loss of her business in COVID-19 was diagnosed with brain cancer - the club knew it had to do something.

But, it needs bigger towns like Tamworth to help.

After an unsuspecting conversation in French won over a staff member at TOMRA, the company that runs Return and Earn machines, Manilla Lions Club member Katie Fobbe had their cause put on the app statewide.

"He told me they couldn't take us on because we're too small, and normally they work with bigger groups - but he asked me to tell him our story," she said.

"There's a couple in our little village who bought a business and two weeks later COVID-19 hit the country and they couldn't really recover from that.

"A couple of months later the lady was diagnosed with brain cancer, it was a really shitty situation.

"This isn't just about her but all local cancer sufferers - she's in a terrible situation but she wants to share it, she doesn't want it all for herself."

With no Return and Earn machines in Manilla, the club has to lean on local donations being driven an hour to Tamworth, the Tamworth community making donations - or the kindness of strangers across the state.

The myTOMRA app is brand new, people can download it, go to the machine, scan the barcode and choose to donate to the Manilla Lions Club.

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It was a shock to even find out the community stalwart had brain cancer, club president Sue Beale said.

"It was actually such a shock to find out she had an operation, because she's been so pro-Manilla, trying to get Manilla on the map and get things for us - now she has this," she said.

"When someone in the community's house burned down, her mother was going into care so she let them stay at her mother's rent-free."

To make a donation, download the myTOMRA app, select Support Local Cancer Sufferers - Manilla Lions Club in charities and scan the barcode before you put cans in.

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