Special honour for Wheatbelt FDC educator who helped a family through cancer journey

Cassandra Duckworth, a mother of five and family day care (FDC) educator from the West Australian Wheatbelt has been honoured with a regional educator place in the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards, recognised for the support she has given to a young boy as his father battled cancer. 

Ms Duckworth, who works as part of the Willi Wagtails Family Day Care service near Williams, has been an educator for seven years, and is one of 69 regional educator winners in the National awards, the only awards of their kind to specifically recognise FDC educators in Australia. 

During her time caring for young Xavier while his father underwent cancer treatment, and later after he passed away, Ms Duckworth was keen to support the wish of the family for his routines and life to remain as normal as possible. 

“His mum wanted everything to stay the same … we wanted consistency for him so his life could continue as normally as possible while they were going through this hugely traumatic event,” she told local news source The West Australian.

“I just continued the same amount of care that I always had for him. I tried not to get too emotional.I never expected to go through something like that with them, but I’ve become so close with them. I feel really honoured,” she told the paper. 

To read the original coverage of this story, please see here. For more information about the Family Day Care Awards, see here.