JOSH CARTER is too young to understand but the fund-raising of City2Surf participants is helping build his treasured bracelet of "bravery beads".

The four-year-old cancer patient, from Colyton, receives a new bead after each treatment for a brain tumour between his optic nerves that has already destroyed the sight in his left eye.

The bravery beads program is one of the support initiatives provided by the charity Cure Our Kids, the leading fund-raiser in the Sun-Herald City2Surf, presented by Westpac, over the past three years.

The Cure Our Kids team and their supporters have raised more than $410,000 in the City2Surf since 2009.

The charity, which supports the oncology unit at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, has used the funds to extend its services to hundreds of sick children. Kits containing toiletries, phone cards, parking and meal vouchers are given to all new patients' families, while the family room has a new fridge and is stocked with groceries.

"We have put new sofa beds into each child's room so that mums and dads can sleep overnight," the Cure Our Kids fund-raising and events manager, Katrina Ortolan, said.

"We also have the bravery beads program, which helps reward the courage of these kids.

"The City2Surf is a well-known and well-run event which makes it really easy for people to participate and fund-raise - and we are lucky to have a very loyal support base of families who tend to stay with us through the years.''

Josh, who is undergoing his second long-term regime of chemotherapy to prevent the tumour taking the sight of his other eye, is "just fantastic", according to his mother, Emma Carter. "He suffers anxiety when it is time for his chemo because he needs to have a large needle inserted into the port in his chest, but after it's all over he's up and about and lively as usual," she said.

They had received plenty of support and care from the Cure Our Kids team. "There is always a call to find out how Josh is going."

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