Australia: Quest Apartment Hotels has partnered with the Sony Foundation to launch You Can Stay – an initiative aimed to support young Australians aged 15 to 25 who are diagnosed with cancer.
Around one third of young people affected by cancer live in regional or rural areas, and the average cost a youth cancer patient and their family pays for accommodation in the city to access treatment is $7000.
Typically diagnosed with rare cancers of the blood, brain, bone and soft tissue requiring intense treatment in city hospitals, young patients from the country are disproportionately burdened by the costs of cancer simply by living out of metropolitan areas and their age.
To fill a gap in affordable accommodation for teenagers and young adult cancer patients from regional areas, Sony Foundation Australia, the charity backed by the Sony group of companies, has partnered with Quest Apartment Hotels to launch the charitable accommodation program You Can Stay.
Available to all cancer patients nationally aged 15 to 25 who live 100 kilometres or more from their treating hospital, You Can Stay will provide free accommodation in a Quest Apartment Hotel, while life-saving cancer treatment is sought.
The length of stay is not capped and is available to both in-patients and out-patients and their family members, with options of one- and two-bedroom apartments, at no cost to the patient or their families.
The scheme also accepts patients on a clinical trial, which State Government Patient Travel and Accommodation Subsidy Schemes typically do not support.
In early 2020, Sony Foundation and Quest started placing patients in emergency accommodation at no cost to the patients. To date, 15 patients nationally with more than 750 nights paid for in charitable funding have been provided.
David Mansfield, COO of Quest Apartment Hotels said: “As Australia’s largest serviced apartment operator, we knew we could make an impact and were compelled to act. We know that when these guests come to us, it’s a terribly challenging time so we have implemented a tailored bookings process to make things easier and support their unique requirements. Today, we can proudly say Quest is only ever a phone call away. We would like to thank Sony Foundation for inviting us along on this important journey. We look forward to making a continued impact together through the You Can Stay initiative and seeing that no young person fighting cancer goes without a place to call home, for a day, week, month, or even year at a time.”
Sophie Ryan, CEO of Sony Foundation Australia said: “You Can Stay is needed now more than ever during this pandemic to ensure cancer patients are able to access cancer treatment in the city in safe surroundings. We predict approximately 250 regional patients nationally aged 15 to 25 years will need between 8,000 -10,000 nights of accommodation over the next 12 months which Sony Foundation is committed to funding. We are incredibly grateful for our partner Quest, and all our donors who acknowledge the disparity between country and city services for cancer patients and are committed to helping us fill this gap through a business minded, philanthropic solution.”
