Kara Nell

Cert IV Mental Health Peer Support

Kara Nell’s son Kai was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Karyoblastic Leukaemia (AMKL) at age two years old and passed away after two bone marrow transplants in January 2017, just before his fourth birthday.

Kara is a bereaved parent and spent an extended period inpatient as her two-year-old son underwent two bone marrow transplants. After the devastation of his loss, she felt compelled to support other families. Turning pain into purpose became an integral part of her recovery, and ensuring no family faced childhood cancer alone became her priority.

Kara has been a committee member of Kids Cancer Support Group (KCSG) for eight years. She holds a Cert IV in Mental Health Peer Support and is now employed by KCSG, working closely with hundreds of Western Australian families at Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) and throughout the WA community. Kara works with families in treatment, palliative care, bereavement and survivorship. KCSG has a strong focus on survivorship support and recovery, offering wraparound and tailored support to the whole family for as long as needed.

She has represented families for several years on various WA Health/PCH consumer groups. Kara feels passionately that lived-experience voices are valued, particularly in survivorship and mental health advocacy, and that the whole family should be a priority. She has supported fundraising for research extensively through ‘Kai’s Big GOLD Ball’, a WA Childhood Cancer fundraising event for all families facing childhood cancer.

Kara feels honoured to be part of the Children’s Cancer CoLab lived experience committee, representing families in WA, and using her lived experience and professional qualifications to improve outcomes for all Australian families, as well as being a voice for others who may not currently have the capacity to self-advocate.

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Future Leaders
Innovation Accelerators
Survivorship and Living Well
Safer Therapies
Next-Generation Therapies