Article from 2020/2021 Impact of Giving Annual Report

Ange and Trent Cutler’s connection with the RCH began in 2016, when their youngest child Airlie received incredible life changing care from teams across the hospital.

Airlie was born with a rare and complex medical condition that requires specialist care. Shortly after Airlie’s diagnosis, Ange and Trent started researching surgeons who had experience with her condition. Ange ended up reaching out to a hospital in the United States of America for help. One of the surgeons forwarded their email to Associate Professor Sebastian King, a paediatric surgeon at the RCH who had experience with conditions like Airlie’s.

The Cutlers travelled from their home in New South Wales to see Sebastian, and as soon as they met, Ange and Trent knew he was the person who could help Airlie.

At six months old, Airlie had several extensive surgeries at the RCH that involved doctors from many disciplines, including colorectal, gynaecology and urology.

“The care we received at the RCH was second to none – it is such an extraordinary place filled with extraordinary people, and we knew we had to do something to give back to them,” said Ange.

After reflecting on their time at the RCH and the care received by Sebastian and his team, the Cutler’s made the decision to leave a gift in Will to the hospital, joining the 1870 Society. They also worked with Sebastian to advocate for government funding to establish a dedicated Colorectal and Pelvic Reconstruction Clinic at the RCH.

“While we were in the hospital with Airlie, we recognised the importance of having a dedicated clinic where children like Airlie could go and be seen by different specialists, from different disciplines, under one roof.”

“The RCH might just be a building, but the people inside that building are making great things happen every single day. By leaving a gift in our Wills, we know that we’re supporting those people. We’re allowing their ideas and innovations to come to fruition, which will help to improve the health outcomes of generations to come,” said Ange.

“While we know the money we leave won’t impact Airlie directly, we wanted to support the hospital, the clinicians and everyone in the Colorectal and Pelvic Reconstruction Service who had given us so much. We also wanted to ensure that other children who were born with conditions like Airlie’s could access great care now and into the future.”

“It was important to us to make a difference and we feel like we owe it to the hospital to do that. We had people invest in our daughter and our family, so we want to pass that feeling onto another family – even if that is after our time,” said Ange.

Learn more about the 1870 Society