"I can't imagine how scary it is going in to have heart surgery or any other sort of surgery. My jumps don’t compare to what the patients experience in the Mater.”
Growing up, Reece always knew how much the Mater meant to his grandmother, Nana Cathy. For decades, it has been the place where she received life-saving care, undergoing three successful heart surgeries that have allowed her to continue making memories with her family.
Reece wanted to push himself beyond his comfort zone in a way that reflected the courage shown by patients like his nana every day.
The result was Jumps That Matter, a fundraising challenge that would see him face some of his biggest fears while raising money for the Mater.
“The Mater Hospital has treated my nana, Cathy O’Brien, multiple times over the past 60 years,” Reece explains. “Three successful heart surgeries later, she’s still here with us. So, I thought, what can I do to raise money for the Mater?”
The answer came in the form of a challenge unlike anything he had ever attempted before. Reece set an initial fundraising target of €3,000. For each €1,000 raised, he would complete an activity that genuinely terrified him.
For someone with a longtime fear of heights, that was no easy commitment.
The first milestone meant taking on a canyon swing in Switzerland.
The second involved a bungee jump.
The third was a skydive.
And when donations continued to pour in, he extended the challenge, eventually raising an incredible €4,025.
“It was scary, but exciting,” Reece says. “I wanted it to be something that would help me grow as a person and face my fears. So, it was well worth it.”
At the heart of the challenge was his Nana Cathy, whom Reece describes as his best friend.
“We’d be here for hours talking about all the memories we’ve made together,” he says. “So many holidays to Spain and camping trips down the country with my sister and my cousins. She’s my best friend. She’s always been there for me.”
Cathy’s story with the Mater started long ago… She first began attending the Hospital as a young woman. Then, in 2000, she underwent her first open-heart surgery. A second followed in 2016, and a third in 2021. Throughout it all, she has remained under the care of specialist teams at the Mater who, she says, have transformed her life.
“The Mater certainly saved my life three times and allowed me to enjoy my four grandkids and my two great-grandchildren,” Cathy says.
“The advances over the years in my care were just brilliant, absolutely brilliant,” she says. “The specialists, the cardiologists and the surgeons, they’re all brilliant. I can’t say enough about them.”
As a teenager, Cathy faced extraordinary challenges and was once told she might not live long enough to experience many of life’s milestones. Yet she proved every prediction wrong.
Reece’s jumps may have been the visible part of the challenge, but the story behind them is really about love, gratitude and the extraordinary difference that healthcare can make across generations.
Thanks to the care Cathy received at the Mater, she was able to watch her grandson grow up. And thanks to Reece’s determination to give back, more patients and families will benefit from that same life-changing care in the future.