Melanie gives up grog to support her father
Community members have rallied around a Gembrook family after their youngest daughter started a Dry July fundraiser.
Melanie Van Strijp decided to raise money to support her father Kees Van Strijp, who is fighting stage four non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
For the entirety of the fundraiser, Melanie has not consumed any alcohol no matter what occasion.
At first, Melanie's goal was to raise $500, but within five days of launching the fundraiser, the Go Fund Me page had already received $10,000 in donations.
"It was so shocking," Melanie said.
She started the fundraising page halfway through doing dry July, in a bid to support her father in a new course of cancer treatment. Melanie and her family said they have been "overwhelmed" by the support of those around them.
Mr Van Strijp underwent chemotherapy and traditional treatments for some time and has now embarked on a series of natural therapies, including hydrogen, ozone, laser and electrical signalling patches.
He still travels to Monash Hospital in Clayton each week for blood transfusions.
His wife, Anne Van Strijp said chemotherapy had a "devastating effect" on her husband, but the natural treatments are not government funded, and therefore result in a lot of expensive bills.
"I was really surprised and absolutely overwhelmed," Mrs Van Strijp said about her daughter's dry July fundraiser.
"Kees is pretty brave, he's done a lot for the community and for our church
"I think by people's generosity, they're all saying thank you."
Mr Van Strijp is a father to 12 children, Sister Mary of the Cross (a Dominican Sister who lives in Idaho USA), Luke, James, Joseph, Philip, Brigitta, Oliver, Austin, Vincent, Dominic, Bethany and Melanie. He also has 20 grandchildren.
At nearly 70 years old, Mr Van Strip has always led a very active life. He ran several furniture shops over the years and renovated the 1930s family home in Gembrook.
After Mr Van Strijp became ill, there were lots of jobs around the family property that had to be tended to, and his eldest son and daughterin-law decided to lend a helping hand.
The pair were travelling around Australia at the time, and are now living at the family home with their children to support Mr and Mrs Van Strijp, who are very grateful for their support.
"All our kids - all our eight boys and four daughters - help in every way they possibly can, fixing all the broken things on the property," Mrs Van Strijp said.
"Kees is very proud and grateful for all the family support and the recent fundraising effort "We are stunned by the generosity of people." Mrs Van Strip spoke of her husband's bravery in the face of cancer.
"He never complains about his discomfort, his pain," she said.
"I think the hardest thing for a man, who has been very active and strong as a builder, is to relinquish that. To relinquish their strength and their sense of usefulness for their family."
Melanie's brother, Joseph Van Strijp said the family has been united by the experience.
"It's been very uniting, seeing the family get together and just do whatever it takes is very encouraging," he said.
"For anyone that is suffering from cancer of any description this is a moment for unity and strength - and I think it's impossible to do it without God's good grace
"We've been praying hard, and he's certainly answered our prayers along the way."
Joseph said the fundraiser has had an "outstanding response", which was "muchly needed".
"It fills you with faith in humanity again - it's beautiful," he said.
Melanie's fundraiser can be found at https:// www.gofundme.com/f/kees-van-strijp and will remain open until the end of July.