Mudgee's annual Daffodil Day stall, which in any other year would've been at Moufarrige Mall on Friday (August 28), has gone virtual and locals who would've purchased an item - or just made a donation - are now being asked to dig deep online.
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The Cancer Council's Appeal, in its 34th year, has switched to initiatives such as the Virtual Daffodil Day stall, in order to look out for the health of the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not to mention, those who have gone though - or currently experiencing - cancer are some of the most vulnerable people at this time.
Long-time local volunteer, Alison Hughes, said that Mudgee has supported Daffodil Day in some form for over two decades.
"I remember that it was over 20 years ago that I went to the cancer support group for the first time and it was in those early days that they had a lot of daffodils supplied. And we went around and sold them and had a stall," she said.
And added that this year it will just take a different form again.
"We're just doing it a little bit differently. When I saw the emails come in from the Cancer Council I thought 'I can do that'," she said.
"All you need to do is just go to the Virtual Stall page and flip us a couple of bucks like you would've done at the stall.
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"A lot of people wouldn't buy anything but wanted to make sure they gave us a donation, so this year they'll have to go online to do it.
"People are always really generous when it comes to Daffodil Day, because everyone knows somebody who has, had, or died from cancer - it doesn't exclude anybody."
Regardless of whether there's a physical stall or not, the donations still go towards funding the Cancer Council's vital research and support programs. The organisation said that due to investment into research, the resulting advancements in prevention, screening and treatment have increased survival rates from 49 per cent in the 1980s to 69 per cent today.
For Alison, who had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma a number of years ago, she said the Cancer Council's 13 11 20 Information and Support line makes a significant difference to people who hear those words from their doctor.
It provides people with someone to talk to, or - in her case - information to steer her in the right direction when she was looking at three weeks in Sydney for radiation treatment.
"It took all of that weight off our shoulders of having to think about how we were going to sort all of it out. It was really useful to be able to have that information handed to me and I knew where to go," she said.
