When families arrive at the Canterbury Cancer Centre they are greeted with a warm welcome and a comfortable room to make their own for the duration of their stay. And now, thanks to the team at Rotary Club of Christchurch, Sunrise, they are also greeted with a take home pack of eco-friendly cleaning products from Will&Able.

Will&Able is a social enterprise that makes earth-friendly cleaning products while creating jobs for Kiwis with disabilities. A first-of-its-kind enterprise in New Zealand, Will&Able aims to provide jobs for those with disabilities and a community to belong to as well as making a positive environmental impact with their products.

The partnership between the Canterbury and West Coast Cancer Society and Will&Able ensures each family or individual staying at the Canterbury Cancer Centre receives a take home pack of cleaning products. The products are also used by the cleaning team throughout the centre including the fifty accommodation rooms, communal guest facilities and office areas.

The partnership has been made possible through funding provided by the Rotary Club of Christchurch, Sunrise. Club president Dale Robertson explains the motivation for funding the project, “We’ve had a long relationship with Kilmarnock Enterprises here in Christchurch and they’re the local distributor for Will&Able Bulk products, so when the need arose for the Canterbury Cancer Centre, we saw a chance to support two really great charities in one initiative.”

Robertson goes on to say “As a club we like to establish long-lasting relationships with the groups we support. For us it’s not about writing a cheque and moving on, we prefer to be involved at an ongoing operational level so funding Will&Able into the centre was an ideal project for us.”

The Canterbury Cancer Centre cleaning team use Will&Able bulk products to clean all the rooms and to top up the smaller individual products in use throughout the building. Not only is the product inside the bottles eco-friendly, but the packaging for both bulk and individual size products is made from either repurposed or recycled materials, and the Will&Able upcycling scheme ensures that packaging for both sizes of product can be returned for reuse and repurposing.

Marketing and Communications Manager at Kilmarnock Enterprises (which supplies Will&Able bulk products), Ishan Brailsford states “The Cancer Society is an incredible organisation to be partnering with, synonymous with care and compassion, they provide essential support during people’s time of greatest need. Together we are not only able to help people with cancer and their whānau feel more at home during their treatment, but we are also creating meaningful employment opportunities for Kiwis with disabilities. Our team takes such pride in knowing the guests at the Canterbury Cancer Centre can use products that they have filled, labelled, and packed with great care.”

The Canterbury Cancer Centre provides accommodation for families needing to travel to Christchurch for cancer treatment as well housing essential cancer support services provided by the Cancer Society, Encompass Health, and The Prostate Cancer Foundation.

The take home pack has been well-received by guests staying at the Canterbury Cancer Centre, as well as local families who may not be staying at the centre but are receiving help from the Cancer Society within the community.

Cancer Society Canterbury West Coast Partnerships Manager Janice Porter-Hoare says “We’re extremely grateful to Rotary Sunrise for enabling this partnership with Will&Able. It means we’re using quality eco-friendly products within the centre and supporting a fantastic social enterprise at the same time. We’re also thrilled to be able to gift our families the take-home packs. It’s often these thoughtful gestures that add a little bit of uplift to their day.”

She goes on to describe the reaction from recipients of the packs; “The feedback has been extremely positive. Not only do our families appreciate the gesture, but they like fact that the products are eco-friendly as well as supporting a local social enterprise. There’s a whole lot of positive impact happening there.”

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