Israel Rosenfield

In May this year, Israel Rosenfield,  a long time CIKA supporter, died after a brief battle with cancer.  Israel was passionate about many charities but he held CIKA very dear to his heart and was a special friend to many of the committee. We were very  blessed to have Israel on our team.  He championed our cause and needed little encouragement to stand up and speak on our behalf.  Whilst his financial contribution was monumental his passion and personal support encouraged many others to assist our charity. Many of the CIKA team attended his funeral and the following is the presentation made by CIKA President, Sandra Lehrer, at the funeral.

I met Israel about twelve years ago through a friend of his who was a committed supporter of Cancer In Kids at the Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital.  Issy told me about the loss of his son Darryl and the grief that he felt at that time was very raw. Issy had a great need to change, to make things better, and so began a long relationship with our group.  Issy was so pleased that CIKA was a volunteer organization and he had great empathy with many of our  members who had experienced  a similar great loss.

I well remember the time that Issy attended his first CIKA function.  He had donated product for the event but he relished the Grand Auction where he could enjoy and challenge others to dig deep. And they did. He attended all of our major functions, and was an inspirational and passionate advocate for the funding of research into childhood cancer.  We always asked him to speak to our guests; his passion and his story resonated with many.  We will indeed miss those words that he stated so frequently: “ No child should have to suffer”.

Issy has left us early but he leaves behind a stamp of kindness, caring and compassion.  Let us all carry some of this on in our lives.

All of the CIKA team extends to Issy’s partner Sala, his daughter Deanna, son-in-law Ian and grand children Nishika, Warne and Allegria our deepest sympathy.

We shall never forget him.

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