Current Bega office staff will be required to re-apply for their jobs, but those positions will now be based at the organisation’s regional office in Wollongong.

“The recent changes are for a sustainable future,” Cancer Council NSW business development manager Michael Cannon said.

Mr Cannon said although the position of Community Engagement Facilitator as it is now called will be based in Wollongong, the Bega office will be staying open and all current services will remain.

“The job will have a huge amount of travel,” he said.

Mr Cannon blamed a very competitive donations marketplace, a lack of volunteer support and the isolation of workers in Bega as the main reasons for the change.

Despite a lack of donations being collected on the Far South Coast, Mr Cannon praised current Bega staff for their “strong wins in advocacy, with the Aboriginal Strategy Group and developing stakeholder relationships.”

“They’ve done an amazing job,” he said.

However, there is now fear from local advocates that maintaining the current levels of community involvement in the area will be difficult with a new employee based at least four-and-a-half-hours’ drive from the current Bega office.

Sue-Ellen Yates, of Merimbula, is a breast cancer survivor and has been the driving force behind the move to get chemotherapy co-payments removed for cancer patients in NSW.

She fears that trying to reach the same level of community involvement with a new person, and one based so far from Bega, will be difficult.

“We have obtained a great working relationship and secured wins in advocacy and programs for cancer patients,” Ms Yates said.

“For the Cancer Council to pull out of the region now is very disappointing.

“Jennifer [Mozina] and Sarah [Flynn] know the community so well, and have built up a great rapport.”

Mr Cannon said he wanted the current staff to stay on board, but that he didn’t have any other option.

“The Bega staff don’t have the support that they would in a metropolitan area,” he said.

He stressed the importance of volunteers in keeping the charity sustainable, and said there would be a drive to generate more in the Far South Coast region in the future.

“We can’t be government funded and run the advocacy campaigns that we do,” Mr Cannon said.

He said the charity was dedicated more than ever to providing practical community support to the area.

“Cancer Council NSW will support our promises to continue with advocacy and address the Saving Life Campaign, hold the State Government accountable to their recent promise to abolish chemotherapy co-payments, and partner with the community to build cancer smart communities,” he said.

However, Ms Yates feels that cancer patients in the region will be the ones that will lose out the most when the changes take effect on June 17.

“This will be to the detriment of local cancer patients who already suffer due to the geographic isolation of the area,” she said.