The Jim Bacon Foundation provides practical support and financial assistance to cancer patients and organisations that support them during their treatment.

The Foundation keeps in regular contact with service providers, hospital auxiliaries, community groups and health professionals to ensure the needs of individuals are met and services aren’t duplicated. The Foundation also provides an annual scholarship program for up to three University of Tasmania students studying: the care and treatment of cancer; visual arts; or political science. More information is available on the University of Tasmania website.

Jim Bacon spent 25 years working in the union movement representing others and in 1996 became a Member of Parliament. In 1998 he was proudly elected Premier of Tasmania, a position he held until his resignation in March of 2004. The Jim Bacon Foundation was formed after Jim was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and his untimely death in June 2004.

	Find out how you can make a donation (Donations are tax deductible and receipts provided)
	Find out about fundraising acitivities and opportunities
	Download a copy of the Jim Bacon Foundation brochure (PDF, 108 KB)
	Grants recipients and grant application form
	Helpful Guide for Cancer Patients and their Carers (released in December 2008)

Personal note from Honey Bacon

Jim was first diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer on Friday 13 February 2004. His treatment began shortly after an operation to remove a secondary tumor from his brain.

We quickly identified some practical difficulties facing cancer patients, and swung into action, raising $40,000 to buy new recliner chairs for the Royal Hobart Hospital.

The chairs had tables attached, freeing up valuable working space for the nursing staff and ensuring patient comfort during their treatment.

Similar chairs were also bought for the oncology ward at the Launceston General Hospital and the Spurr Wing in Launceston.

Extra money raised was used to buy large refrigerators with ice and cold water dispensers and large freezer compartments to allow patients on special diets to safely store their food.

With the arrival of the new fridge, the Spurr Wing’s amazing volunteers, the Rotary Club and local businesses, built a new kitchen. A great example of people working together to benefit others. The notion of community partnerships was always fundamental to Jim’s view of a civil society.

Cancer has a huge impact on our community. Patients and their families have no time to prepare for such a life-changing challenge. The Jim Bacon Foundation puts a very human face on providing practical and immediate assistance to those who need it most.

Jim’s ethos was always to improve the quality of people’s lives, and the Foundation continues that ethos. Its challenge is to help relieve their financial stress and offer compassion in a practical way during their treatment. This could be as simple as providing a nurse to stay overnight in a private home allowing a carer to get some sleep just to cope with the day ahead.

You can’t really understand the needs of cancer patients and their families, until you have been there yourself.

Thank you to everyone who has already kindly donated to Jim’s memory. Together, we will endeavour to make a difference to people in need.

Community Based Support

Community Based Support (CBS) is an independent, not-for-profit community organisation, mainly funded by the Tasmanian and Commonwealth governments.

We provide in-home, centre based and other community based support services to frail aged and people with disabilities in southern Tasmania. We also provide respite for primary carers.

Click here for a link to the CBS website.

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