Millions Missing: Palm Cove

by Sally Black

The original plan went out the window when numbers dwindled, #MillionsMissing T-shirt’s never arrived and I crashed, so I formed a new plan to just stick with the ME community and make it an opportunity to connect with local people affected and proposed starting a local support group here in Palm Cove, Queensland.

With the help of my husband and daughter we had a small event in our garden. We had already pre-prepared props, so they were used to create the atmosphere for the day.

We had planned to take our thongs down to the beachfront with signage to take some great photos…but once we got together at my place on arrival, we didn’t stop talking with each other. This was the very first time we had met each other, and only just connected through the advertising of the Palm Cove #MillionsMissing event. We shared our stories and tips and strategies…I don’t even know if anyone ate or drank the food, though it did disappear, as we were so engaged with each other I didn’t even notice. 

Before we knew it, it was too dark to bother going down to the beach, and we were too spent to be able to set it up anyway. Luckily my husband and daughter could see this would happen, so quickly set up some of the props in our garden, so we could take photos. Not everybody was able to be photographed, but luckily we managed to get a couple before it was all over.

We all enjoyed it, and will be forming a local support group very soon. As we now know there are more of us in the local community, those that were not able to make it will be able to connect once the group is up and running. While the end result of this particular event was completely different to the initial plan, we feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to meet each other and now share our support networks.

Our local Greens candidate for Leichhardt, Garry Oliver, posted and shared details and promotions for the #MillionsMissing Palm Cove event through his networks and his political pages. For him to specially highlight our event and encourage others to attend, was very much appreciated.

Thanks to #MillionsMissing for making this happen.