Kyle Andrews Foundation to open new facility in Dunsborough

A childhood cancer retreat is making its way to Dunsborough’s iconic Holy Mile. The Kyle Andrews Foundation is opening a new facility along Caves Road in hopes it will be more accessible to Perth families. The charity was formed in 1988 and holds camps in Broome for children going through cancer treatment, but has since found some families struggle to travel such a long way from Perth. Foundation chair Matt Sear said the South West was the perfect answer as it was just two hours south of the metro CBD. “The reason that we’re doing this is to create an area where the kids who are going through cancer treatment at Perth Children’s Hospital can spend a bit of time relaxing,” he said. “We thought if we had somewhere that’s a little bit closer to Perth, then that’d be a great way of getting the kids out of the four walls of PCH and spending a little bit of time at the beach.” The group had applied to lease the property 10 years ago and Mr Sear said it was great to see the vision finally come to fruition, with hopes construction will start before Christmas. “What’s there at the moment is an old building that’s been derelict that we’re looking to renovate,” he said. “We do have a demountable on site, like a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit that we purchased about 18 months ago now. We’re just waiting, going through some shire protocols to get it put into the correct position on site.” The foundation recently received $500,000 as the main beneficiary of the 2022 Gibb River Road Mountain Bike Challenge, which they hope to use to add more establishments to the upcoming Dunsborough facility. “We’re looking for two more units there... to hopefully get three buildings up and running,” Mr Sear said. “We also want to get a shed to put some, surfboards and paddleboards in, but obviously we’ve got to put a lot of the wheelchair access in there too.”