Community & Business
30 April, 2025
One heart at a time
KIDS at Kairi Primary School have joined a global campaign that aims to change the world, one heart at a time.
Last week, Grade 5-6 students at the school sat down to make as many hearts as they could to donate to a cancer wellbeing centre in Cairns so they can be given as a simple and kind gesture to those who need them most.
The initial is part of a global campaign that started in Tasmania by a woman known as Sarah who first started making and sharing the small hearts in 2015 when she was suffering severe anxiety and her marriage was in crisis.
“Once I had completed my first 1000 hearts, I sent packets of hearts to the 76 people who volunteered to share them in their communities. Very quickly, I started getting messages from people who received them, and was touched to realise the power of kindness in action,” Sarah says on her website, 1000 Hearts.
“People told me that they carried my heart as a talisman of love, courage, hope and comfort. In many cases, people expressed that carrying a heart helped them to deal with anxiety, grief, depression and separation from loved ones.
“There were so many beautiful stories, I knew something special was happening.”
She set up the website in 2016 and since then, these acts of kindness have become known worldwide.
Last week, it was the turn of the Kairi students to make their own hearts so they can be donated to COUCH (Cairns Organisation United for Cancer Health) which will then pass them onto patients and their family and friends.
Helping to organise the efforts of the students is Atherton’s All Woman Lingerie owner Noelene Mays who has had a special relationship with COUCH for the past two years, hosting clinics at the centre every month for women who are dealing with breast cancer and want to be fitted with a breast prosthesis.
“We are the only ones that provide this service north of Townsville and many women can’t travel to Atherton for a fitting so we hold a clinic at COUCH every month at the moment to cater for those who can’t access us” she said.
“We know that COUCH has lost $1.4 million in Federal funding, so the Kairi school held a fundraiser last year and raised $4000 which was donated to COUCH.
“This year, we wanted to do something different and we heard about 1000 Hearts and decided that would be great for the kids, teaching them to think of others, and to be kind.”
All the students involved will keep a heart for themselves (“because you have to be kind to yourself as well”), while all the others will be given to COUCH.
To find out more about 1000 Hearts, go to www.1000hearts.com.au
