Sherrona Clifton

Hi, my name is Eileen Wheeler and I’m starting this Gofundme campaign in support of my beautiful younger sister who is a single parent and sole provider to her three lovely daughters.

On Wednesday the 16th of July 2025, Sherrona became very unwell. After enduring 24 hours of excruciating abdominal pain, blood tests and scans to investigate what was wrong, she had to have emergency surgery to save her life. Her body had gone into sepsis as a result of an infection from a perforated diverticulum of the colon.

She had an Anterior resection with covering loop ileostomy performed. This means infected bowel tissue had to be removed which has resulted in a temporary stoma being attached (a stoma is a bag that is attached to the abdomen that removes waste from the body). Sherrona will have this stoma bag for 3-6 months which means she will face another surgery down the track, which will mean another period of time away from work to recover from the second surgery to reverse the requirement of the stoma bag.

Having had no choice but to have this emergency surgery to survive, Sherrona and her girls have suffered devastating financial consequences.

Sherrona has had to take 8-10 weeks off work to recover from this life altering surgery. That is just a generic amount of time that the surgeons have recommended, not taking into account possible set-backs or complications in the healing process.

As we all know, Sherrona is a dedicated, hard working and valued member of staff at a Kindergarten in Albany where she is affectionately known as “Aunty Sherrona”.

Sherrona’s job is very physically demanding and this means she is going to have to take the time to recover fully after this major surgery. This means she will not be able to go to work and earn the living that her family desperately relies on to keep a roof over their heads, food on the table and bills paid.

As Sherrona works part time, this means the leave she has is minimal and due to the commitments of looking after her children when they are sick, she is in deficit with personal and annual leave, meaning she has no leave to fall back on to keep wages coming in. Sherrona is in the process of making enquiries into accessing early release of her Superannuation which she has been informed will be a lengthy and challenging process to apply for and even be successful in that application to receive the funds.

With the ever increasing demand of cost of living pressures and being a single mother providing solely for her 3 daughters, Sherrona is going to need help from our wonderful and generous community to get through this extremely difficult time in her life.

Sherrona is a very loving, kind and bubbly person. Her work with Kindy over the many years she has been in the role has resulted in a positive impact in the lives and early education of many beautiful and lucky children. Sherrona has given so much love and care to all who know her and it would be lovely for that to be returned to her in this challenging time in her life.

She is a very humble person and hates to ask for help. But if there was ever a time to ask for and receive help, it is now. Please consider donating to help ease financial pressures on Sherrona and her family. Sherrona will be forever grateful and thankful for your contributions.

Thank you for your consideration.