Port Macquarie’s Melinda Casey is a talented artist, but her latest work will have a very personal connection for many cancer patients from throughout the Macleay and Hastings.

Her Finishing Tree adorns the wall outside the cancer unit’s chemotherapy treatment room, with its limbs stretching out along the corridor.

The limbs feature a few buds, but the artist has left the branches bare.

The idea, said Nursing Unit Manager Jenny Baroutis, is that patients who complete their chemotherapy treatment will be able to add a very personal touch to the artwork in the form of an acrylic thumb print.

“It will provide patients with closure when they complete their chemotherapy, signifying the end of their current journey,” Ms Baroutis said.

A donation from Kempsey’s Lilli Pilli Ladies funded the commissioned work which already proudly features a dozen thumb prints.

The latest addition was from Wauchope’s Gary Paine, who last month completed a two-year treatment course as part of a clinical trial.

Mr Paine was delighted to be able to leave his print as encouragement to newly diagnosed cancer patients and as a testimony to new drug therapies available through clinical trials.

The Lilli Pilli Ladies have raised almost $20,000 in support of local cancer patients and their families, donating important medical equipment such as a Centrifuge machine for the Mid North Coast Cancer Institute at Port Macquarie, and patient comfort items, such as sofa bed lounges for the Kempsey Palliative Care Unit.

The Ladies’ next fundraiser will be an afternoon tea at 1.30pm on 13 October at Sherwood Hall.

Anyone wanting further information can contact Lilli Pilli Committee member Judy Saul on  6562 4630.