Refugee Biography Delivers Unique Cancer Research Funding Model

The Foundation has revealed that Anh Do wrote a letter to the ACRF in July 2010 saying he wanted  to give 1% of the retail sale price of every book sold to them –  just 2 months before the The Happiest Refugee took the Australian book industry by storm.

Anh Do told the Foundation he anticipated that the funds raised for cancer research would be anywhere between $300 and $30,000 depending on how well the book went.

ACRF Chief Executive, David Brettell says that at the time that Mr Do made this generous offer, no one could have anticipated the success of his biography, or its incredible impact on so many Australian lives.

He says in hindsight it was a very humble understatement. With 1% of proceeds from The Happiest Refugee now being donated to the Australian Cancer Research Foundation in 6-month installments; the first installment was received in April, at over $17,800.

On top if the book’s initial success, The Happiest Refugee recently won ‘Book of the Year’, ‘Newcomer of the Year’ and ‘Biography of the Year’ (joint winner with Musician Paul Kelly’s How to Make Gravy) at the Australian Book Industry Awards in Melbourne.

Brettell says with the book’s success and talk of a film offer by Russell Crowe, ACRF is thrilled to be able to translate Anh’s continuing success into hope for cancer patients of the future.

Brettell says thanks to the unique funding model, every dollar of every donation ACRF receives goes to cutting edge cancer research projects around Australia.