Riders rally for Rushy family

•  Samantha Grant with her daughter Ava Davidson. Photo supplied.

By Daisy Baker
July 13, 2022

The Gladstone Hotel’s inaugural motorbike ride this weekend will be donating a quarter of its entry fees to a local family who have welcomed twin girls prematurely at 30 weeks.
Caleb Davidson and Samantha Grant of Rushy Lagoon welcomed Layla Amanda Davidson and Ava Ellie Davidson early on May 30, as Layla had an atrial septal defect (ASD) which is a hole in the heart between the upper chambers.
Layla was born weighing just 1.052kg and will undergo open heart surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital in the next few weeks, when she has gained some more weight.
Samantha is with the twins in NICU at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne.
Ava was born weighing 1.272kg.
“We still have a long road ahead of us with [the] operation and we've been told we could still be here another few months,” Samantha said.
Gladstone Hotel owners Cathy and Bob Willis said when they heard about the family’s plight, they wanted to do something to help.
“We like to look after the locals. And Caleb is one of our regular customers,” Cathy said.
“We recently had another Rushy Lagoon family whose little boy had a stroke and we did some fundraising for them too.”
$10 from each rider will be donated to the Caleb and Samantha to help them as they navigate the coming months.
There will also be a donation tin and a raffle to be drawn on the night of the ride at the Hotel.
Speaking more generally about the event this Saturday, Cathy said they wanted to provide something for the local community, especially during the quiet winter months.
“This is the first time that we’ve done the ride. We wanted to do something to get the community together and bring the town back alive again.”
Riders will begin at the Gladstone Hotel on Saturday at 10am, riding for around six hours all up, with a lunch stop at Pioneer.
There is an online fundraiser titled Bringing Layla Home which people can also donate to via mycause.com.au