Dainere's Rainbow

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Dainere's Rainbow

A legacy to the selfless and inspiring Canberra teenager and brain cancer advocate Dainere Anthoney.

Mission Statement

Dainere’s Rainbow are dedicated to elevating vital awareness, raising funds, advocacy and initiatives to improve outcomes for every child in Canberra and across Australia diagnosed with childhood brain cancer and for families to feel supported, strengthened and valued. Our Vision
One hundred percent cure rate for all children diagnosed with brain cancer through Australian resear

ch and quality services and support throughout their illness and beyond. Dainere’s Rainbow maintains a lifetime commitment as advocates to raise awareness and working to eradicate this number one disease cause of death in children. We are dedicated to taking action, giving hope and creating change for childhood brain cancer. We are focused on continuing inspiring and selfless Dainere's legacy and seeing her greatest wish in life of a cure being found for this horrendous disease become a reality. We are also dedicated to extending practical and helpful support in the Community through sharing our experiences of the childhood cancer, palliative care and funeral planning journey by sharing our personal knowledge and useful information in the hope of assisting other families facing a similar situation.

01/09/2026

Today starts Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

'Childhood should be filled with firsts, not hospital rooms.'

Yet for children with brain cancer, childhood can become a landscape of scans, surgery, treatment, rehabilitation and, for some, end of life care.

Their courage is extraordinary. Their battles are often invisible.

Too often, the earliest signs of childhood brain cancer can resemble ordinary childhood illnesses. A headache. Vomiting. Changes in balance or vision. Unusual tiredness. Symptoms that can be easy to dismiss while precious time quietly passes.

Behind every delayed diagnosis is a child waiting for answers and a family suddenly thrust into a world they never imagined.

This September, we are asking Australia to Turn September Golden.

Because awareness can save precious time.

Because research can change what is possible.

Because families should never have to walk through childhood cancer feeling unseen or alone.

Let every conversation carry light.
Let every shared post amplify a voice.
Let every golden spark remind a child and their family that they are not forgotten.

This September, help us turn awareness into action, and darkness into hope.

31/08/2026

It all starts tomorrow........

🌟 TURN SEPTEMBER GOLDEN FOR CHILDHOOD CANCER 🌟

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a time to unite in strength, compassion, and action. Gold—the colour of resilience, courage, and hope—symbolises the incredible bravery of children who face cancer and the families who walk beside them.

By embracing gold this September, you not only honour their fight but also help shine a light on the urgent need for greater awareness, advocacy, and research.

💛 Here are ways you can take part in turning September golden:

✨ Share your most special Golden Moments online to spread hope and solidarity.

✨ Advocate for landmarks, schools, or businesses to Light Up Gold in recognition.

✨ Host a Golden Bake and raise vital awareness and funds.

✨ Encourage your school to Turn Gold with a m***i or sports day.

✨ Plant Golden Gardens or make golden flowers to honour awareness.

✨ Collect Golden Coins and donate to a charity making a real impact for children.

✨ Wear a Gold Ribbon each day, in person or online, to keep childhood cancer visible.

✨ Add sparkle with Golden Locks to start meaningful conversations.

✨ Take on a Gold Challenge, sharing your journey to inspire others.

✨ Spread knowledge through Facts Are Golden because awareness leads to action.

Every golden gesture, no matter how small, becomes part of something bigger: a collective movement that remembers the children we have lost, supports those in the fight today, and creates hope for a future where no child suffers from cancer.

Together, we can turn September golden. Together, we can change lives. 💛

30/08/2026

Tonight, we pause to hear Dainere’s voice.

Written in 2012, these words reveal a wisdom, courage and clarity that remain profoundly moving today. Her message was simple, but powerful: words matter, but it is our actions that have the power to change what words alone cannot.

“Have you heard the saying that actions speak louder than words?
When someone is diagnosed with cancer, especially a terminal cancer, the world often responds with words, shock, and sometimes anger. But looking back, I truly believe that it is not words, but actions, that hold the power to create change, to confront the cruelty and injustice of this disease.

To take action against cancer is to contribute to a vision of a world where cancer no longer exists.

How can you take action?
You can raise awareness. You can educate others. You can give through donations, attend fundraising events, support families affected by this devastating illness, and act with kindness, letting compassion guide your advocacy.

Every action, no matter how small, reverberates. Every gesture of awareness, generosity, or love helps illuminate a path toward hope and change.

Let your actions speak. Let them heal. Let them transform lives.”

Dainere understood that hope is not something we simply hold.

It is something we build.

Every voice raised. Every child supported. Every dollar given to research. Every family embraced. Every act of kindness. Every decision to speak about childhood brain cancer when silence would be easier.

These are actions.

And together, they become change.

Today, we carry Dainere’s words forward by turning them into deeds.

Because a future without childhood brain cancer will not be created by hope alone.

It will be created by all of us who choose to act.

25/08/2026

When a child faces brain cancer, the strength of a family can become extraordinary. For siblings, that strength is often found in the simple privilege of being together: sharing laughter when it is needed most, listening without judgement, creating memories and knowing that, whatever the circumstances, there are people beside you who will walk the journey with you.

Working together as a family is not about everyone responding in the same way. It is about understanding our differences, having compassion for one another and recognising that every person has something important to contribute. For siblings, it can mean being a source of courage on a difficult day, finding a moment of joy when it seems elusive, or simply being there without needing to say anything at all.

Brain cancer can place profound demands upon a family, but it can never diminish the love that binds it together. In fact, sometimes the most difficult circumstances reveal the depth of that bond and the extraordinary resilience that exists within it.

Family is where we learn to care for one another, to celebrate one another and to carry one another when the weight becomes too great to carry alone. It is where ordinary moments become precious, memories become enduring and love becomes something we can draw upon long after the moment has passed.

For siblings living alongside childhood brain cancer, knowing that you remain an integral part of your family matters deeply. Your happiness matters. Your voice matters. Your memories matter. You matter.

There is an immeasurable strength in knowing that, whatever life may ask of us, we do not have to face it alone.

Together, we are stronger.

23/08/2026

Dainere’s life was far too short, but the reach of her legacy continues to surprise us.

As her brother, it is difficult to express what it means to our family to know that her name and her story have travelled 15,000 kilometres from Canberra to Cusco, Peru, and are now part of a place where children are being given the opportunity to learn, dream and build a different future.

Stuart and Meryl Jones, two deeply compassionate members of Dainere’s Rainbow, have made this possible through their remarkable commitment to children in Peru.

Their connection with the country began in 1972, when Stuart became lost on the streets of Lima as night fell. Local police officers helped him safely back to his ship and even paid his taxi fare. That simple act of kindness never left him.

Decades later, Stuart and Meryl returned to Peru and saw children, particularly young girls, spending their days selling trinkets simply to survive. They chose to help. They sponsored Blanca, who went on to become a nurse and midwife, and later met Carmen, an extraordinary teacher working with children in a small, run down space beneath the Andes.

Together, they helped create a purpose built educational facility.

And within that facility is Dainere’s Class.

For our family, this is deeply poignant.

Even as her brain cancer relentlessly advanced and her strength was increasingly diminished, Dainere summoned an extraordinary determination to continue attending school. Education gave her purpose and a sense of normality when so much of her young life had been taken from her.

To know that another child can now sit in a classroom carrying her name, learning and imagining what their future might hold, is something I find incredibly difficult to put into words.

This is what Dainere’s legacy means to me.

It is not only about remembering the daughter and sister we lost. It is about quietly doing something good in her name and allowing her life to continue making a difference.

We are profoundly grateful to Stuart and Meryl for carrying a part of Dainere’s story so far from home, and for giving children in Cusco something every child deserves: the chance to learn, to hope and to believe in what their future might become.

Dainere may no longer be here, but through the kindness of others, her light continues to reach places we could never have imagined.

21/08/2026

Some memories transcend time. They become part of who we are.

Today, I want to share words from my little sister Dainere’s journal, written during a chapter of her life no child should ever have been compelled to endure.

Dainere wrote:

“My determination, positivity and remaining isolated, meant I didn't have a hospital admission for a temperature. My oncologist was surprised and amazed and he gave me a very special and meaningful Gold Medal.”

It was engraved simply: “Best Chemo Patient.”

Yet to Dainere, it represented something infinitely greater than a distinction.

She wrote that whenever she looked at it, it reminded her “to have strength and courage in everything I do and to believe that a miracle is possible.”

As her older brother, I remember the child behind those words.

I remember her determination. Her quiet resolve. Her extraordinary capacity to find light where there was every reason for darkness.

She had been told that the brutality of her chemotherapy would almost certainly mean hospital admissions with fevers. Dainere determined otherwise. Through discipline, positivity and immense courage, she achieved what had seemed almost impossible.

What moves me most is that Dainere did not merely endure adversity. She chose how she would meet it.

Her words were written in the midst of uncertainty, yet they possess a conviction that has endured far beyond the moment in which they were written.

“Believe that a miracle is possible.”

Those words remain with me.

Dainere may no longer be here to hold her gold medal, but its meaning has never diminished. With every passing year, its significance seems to deepen.

Her courage continues to reverberate through Dainere’s Rainbow.

Her words continue to reach children and families confronting their own unimaginable storms.

Her hope continues to illuminate a path forward.

This is how I honour my little sister.

By taking the courage she carried and transforming it into something that can reach beyond her, helping bring hope, compassion and possibility to children and families who need it most.

Dainere believed a miracle was possible.

Her life taught me never to stop believing that it is.

20/08/2026

This afternoon, as rain fell quietly across Canberra, an extraordinary rainbow emerged.

For Dainere, rainbows were never merely beautiful. They were hope made visible.

In her book, You Have to Go Through a Storm to Get to a Rainbow, Dainere articulated a profound truth: even when life carries us through unimaginable adversity, beyond the storm there could still be light.

Those words have become enduring.

Whenever a rainbow appears across Canberra, Australia or somewhere in the world, people send it to us with the words:

“Dainere visited.”

Few words could hold greater poignancy.

Her rainbow has become a universal language of remembrance, love and enduring hope.

But Dainere’s hope was never intended to remain passive.

It demands purpose.

It demands action.

Through Dainere’s Rainbow, we advocate for children confronting brain cancer, amplify awareness, advance vital research, support families enduring unimaginable circumstances, pursue better resources and cultivate initiatives capable of effecting meaningful change.

That is how we honour Dainere.

Not solely by remembering the daughter and sibling we lost, but by transforming the magnitude of her life into a force for good that can illuminate the lives of others.

So when you next encounter a rainbow, pause.

Look upwards.

Remember Dainere.

Then ask yourself:

What will I do to change the life of a child and family enduring brain cancer?

Your voice can amplify awareness.

Your generosity can advance research.

Your compassion can alleviate an unbearable journey.

Your action can become another family’s hope.

Send us your rainbow.

Tell us where Dainere visited you.

Then let it become more than a fleeting moment of beauty.

Let it become a commitment.

Because beyond the storm, there could still be light.

What will you do with it?

With immense gratitude to Sonja for her meaningful rainbow photo today

17/08/2026

Dainere may no longer be physically here, but her presence remains, enduring and luminous, through the words she wrote and left behind.

In January 2012, Dainere wrote:

“There are times in our lives when life isn't all we want it to be but we should see each new morning as an opening door to a better day than the one before.”

Just one month later, in February 2012, we received the devastating news that her cancer had aggressively spread into her spine.

At the time, Dainere was enduring dreadful, relentless headaches, pain and nausea. Her Endocrinologist was deeply concerned and immediately instructed her to stop her growth hormone injections. He urgently sought an MRI of her brain, with the earliest available appointment being 1 February, unless a cancellation arose or her symptoms became so severe that she needed to be rushed to hospital.

Reading these words now carries an ache beyond measure.

Dainere was living through fear, pain and uncertainty, yet she still chose to speak of hope. She still looked towards the morning. She still believed that another day could be better than the one before.

That is the extraordinary legacy she left us.

Her words were written in the midst of suffering, yet they reached towards light.

And all these years later, they still do.

Dainere may have left this world, but her voice remains.

We hear her. We remember her. We carry her.

And with every new morning, we continue to walk through the opening door she so beautifully believed in.

16/08/2026

Sport was always a treasured part of Dainere’s life. Even after her brain cancer diagnosis, she refused to let it define what she could do. She simply found another way.

15/08/2026

When childhood brain cancer enters a family, it does not confine its devastation to the child whose name appears upon the diagnosis.

It permeates the household.
It alters the architecture of childhood.

And somewhere within that altered landscape are the siblings.

I know.

I was one of them.

So was my older sister, Nalani.

When I was in Year 11, Dainere’s brain cancer spread into her spine. There were no further treatment options. Palliative care was introduced. She was at home with us, deteriorating beneath an illness that would ultimately take her life.

Nalani and I helped care for her.

We could not halt the cancer.
We could not take away her suffering.

But we could still do something.

When you are young, watching someone you love being taken from you by an illness you cannot defeat, that matters.

It gave our helplessness somewhere to belong.
It gave our love a purpose.

Then came Year 12.

School. Examinations. A future I was expected to contemplate while my sister’s was disappearing before my eyes.

Just weeks before Dainere died in June, I developed shingles. I still sat my mid semester examinations.

At the time, I simply endured it.

Thirteen years later, I understand it differently.

Dainere was fifteen.

She was suffering profoundly, yet suffering never diminished her capacity for grace. She remained selfless. She thought of others. She kept smiling. She inspired people with a courage far beyond her years.

Then she died.

And the world continued.

The world does not stop when yours does.

Years pass. You become older.

Dainere has remained fifteen.

You mourn not only the life they had, but the innumerable lives they might have lived. The person they might have become. The years they were denied. The future you were meant to share.

This is what I wish more people understood about siblings.

We are not spectators.

We are children whose lives are irrevocably transformed by an illness we did not choose and could not defeat.

Our childhood matters.
Our grief matters.
Our future matters.

Love is not always the power to rescue.

Sometimes it is the courage to remain when rescue is no longer possible.

Sometimes it is care without cure.
Presence without answers.
Devotion without expectation.

I am still Dainere’s brother.

Thirteen years have passed.

That truth has not diminished with time.

It has deepened.

And I will devote the years she was denied to fighting for the children who are still here, their siblings and their families.

Because childhood brain cancer does not steal only a child’s tomorrow.

It casts a lifelong shadow across every sibling who loved them.

They are not outside the story.

They are part of it.

And they deserve to be seen.

For Dainere.

For Nalani.

For every sibling carrying an absence the world cannot see.

And for every child whose future we still have the power to protect.

Address

PO Box 325
Mitchell, ACT
2911

Website

http://www.daineresrainbow.com.au/

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