Stella Bella Foundation

Thank you Dr Jenny for highlighting our very special Tiny Star Beads program that brings a silver lining to the medical journey for dear little NICU babies in hospitals all around Australia. Thank you also for helping to take care of the little ones until they are ready to go home ❤️

These tiny star beads tell the story of a little NICU baby’s big journey from hospital to home 🥹 a keepsake of milestones, procedures & big moments for little ones ❤️‍🩹 often preterm/surgical babies stay admitted for months for feeding & growing, and can have strings of beads much much muuuuuch longer than their own length! these are one of my favourite NICU crafts @stellabellalittlestars 🌟 👩🏻‍⚕️ hi! I’m Jenny, a paediatric resident doctor & content creator showing u behind the scenes of working at the hospital 🏥 follow me for more cute paediatric moments in residency, attempts at work life balance & australian life ☀️ 🏷️ #nicuawareness #healthcareworker #paediatrics #nicujourney #doctordiaries *permission from NICU occupational therapist & hospital approval to post obtained

Today I was humbled to attend the farewell for an incredible young fellow who, along with his beautiful and so loving family, I have had the privilege to know since the early days of our foundation 💚

Christopher was 12 years old.
He was a vivacious and life loving child who had lived with an extremely complex medical condition and associated disabilities since he was born.

Through all of his days he brought laughter and warmth, and many life lessons, to his family and he was a wonderful big brother to his two little sisters and his little brother.

Christopher’s parents have been tireless in their efforts to provide him, and their other children with a happy and love filled life even though I know there have been many really tough times.

In among it all, Mum and Dad have always helped others in their community even though it would be hard to imagine having that much extra kindness and energy to share around after all that has been needed at home.

Christopher’s mum, Pamela, shared the story of Christopher at our ball in 2024 and won our Richard Lockett award in 2025 for the awesome efforts she has always put into caring for, guiding and supporting others in the community. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever met a Mum as dedicated and loving as her.

Christopher’s Dad, Tom, held his family tightly through it all and today he spoke so bravely and eloquently and shared so many positive things about his son and his amazing life and the gifts he brought to those who loved him.

My heart goes out to this very special family today as they say their final farewell to their beloved Christopher. Life is precious and hard and wonderful, and tragic sometimes, but the true love of a family can soar above all of the hard and create such joy. I hope all of the happy and joy filled memories will carry this dear family through the days ahead.

Hold your children a little tighter tonight and hold this beautiful family in your hearts # # #

We know a lot of charities ask for donations at this time of year and it’s hard to choose with so many good causes who need support BUT…
Imagine if each of the 3100 folk who follow our page and support our work in the community could do a quick donation of just $5 each?
What could we do with $15,500?

🚗 We could provide 3 families each week for the next year with a voucher for a tank of fuel to travel back and forward to hospital or to spend on groceries.

🧑‍⚕️ We could provide 6 months of nursing care for our early education and respite care unit at our special children’s centre.

🦁 We could provide bravery beads for hundreds of babies in the NICU and children with chronic medical conditions to bring some positive moments and memories to their medical journey.

💵 We could provide financial grants for families going through the toughest times imaginable with their very sick child and minus their regular income whilst still needing to pay their bills and more.

There are many things we do to support families in need and always more to be done. We recieve no government support to help us do the crucial work we do so we rely on the kindness and generosity of our community. If you are able to make a small, tax deductible, donation we will make sure to spend it where it’s needed most: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QHPBU3SQ5HZHW

Thank you for any contribution you can make, every little bit will help ❤️

https://stellabellafoundation.org.au/

A huge thank you 🙏 to these legends from Projects Assured who visited our Stella Bella Children's Centre kitchen and cooked up another batch of healthy and nutritious meals that will go to the Canberra Hospital to feed parents caring for children in the NICU and Special Care Nursery. These meals make a big difference to parents caring for a seriously ill child in hospital 💖

𝙄𝙩'𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙚.

We depend on the generosity of individuals to fund our programs of support for seriously ill children and their families.

Your tax-deductible donation helps us to:

⭐ provide direct financial help, meal vouchers, petrol and accommodation for parents with children in hospital

⭐ run our specialised respite and occasional care unit for chronically ill babies and children at the Stella Bella Children's Centre in Fyshwick

⭐ operate and expand our Little Star Beads program in hospitals across the country, providing unique beads for a child's medical procedures and milestones in treatment, which strung together tell the story of their personal medical journey

Please donate today: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QHPBU3SQ5HZHW

What a fantastic time we had last night at GIO Stadium as part of the 50-50 Charity Raffle for the big NRL game between the Canberra Raiders and the Gold Coast Dolphins.

⭐ Thank you to all our volunteers for braving the cold and bringing so much enthusiasm to selling tickets and engaging with supporters, we literally could not have done it without you!

⭐ Thank you to the Canberra Raiders Foundation for choosing us as a charity partner and allowing us to connect with the community at such a big local sporting event!

⭐ Thank you to everyone who bought tickets, your generosity resulted in a very large prize pool and also means we were able to raise funds to continue our work supporting seriously ill children and their families in Canberra and the surrounding region 👍

One of the perks of the job! Our hard working volunteer Ellyn, who is a big Canberra Raiders supporter, got to meet Victor the Viking and Velda the Valkyrie at GIO Stadium prior to the big game tonight against the Dolphins.

You can still buy tickets in the big raffle tonight at: https://5050charityraffle.com.au/raiders

The cash prize is up over $7K and climbing 👍