Following the success of last year’s fundraising lunch for the Leukaemia Foundation, the family of insurance broker Robert Cooper are holding their second annual event in his honour.
In January 2023 Robert Cooper, “broker extraordinaire” and co-director of Brisbane based CPR Insurance Services, died from leukaemia.
Cooper’s partner and director of CPR, Mandy Cooper, said she plans to “reignite” her late husband’s memory “at the now annual Leukaemia Foundation fundraiser on Tuesday 9 July at Brisbane’s Prince Consort Hotel.”
“We can't change our journey but we can certainly change the journey for others by doing this,” said Mandy.
The lunch will include a live auction, raffles and prizes. The aim is to beat last year’s effort that raised $27,000.
Those proceeds were enough, said Mandy, to fund six months of leukaemia research and also provide three months’ worth of accommodation for a family needing to relocate for treatment.
Mandy encouraged people who can’t attend the July event to send a donation to the Leukaemia Foundation on Robert’s behalf. Donations can be sent via the Foundation’s website. She also plans to have a donations link on her website in the coming days.
“They can also speak to me or send me an email and I can certainly send them a link to make a donation,” said Mandy. “Or if they'd like to donate to our raffle, auction or prize giving that would also help our fundraising efforts.”
Like last year, the family timed their event to make it easier for many to attend.
“We time it just before the Underwriting Agencies Council [UAC] expo because the underwriting agencies are an important part of our business,” she said. “CPRs growth was because we had a close relationship with underwriting agencies.”
Mandy said her firm “feels a close tie to them.”
Insurance Business asked how the business is looking.
“We're up 10% on last year,” said Mandy. “All things considered, that's fantastic because it's been a hard year.”
Even after a very challenging 12 months, Mandy has managed to expand the firm.
“We've got two new staff and we're still growing and still having great support from our clients and loving the journey,” she said. “It’s surprising and nice considering, if I didn't have the distractions of the last three years, imagine where I’d be.”
The Coopers’ children have grown up too. Son John is 22 and recently graduated from university. Daughter Jaslyn has turned 18 and is in the middle of year 12 at high school.
“We’ve had big personal milestones in the family, which have been confronting to do without Rob, but we've got through them all and we're just moving forward and living life which is what he’d want us to do,” Mandy said.
“Robert was passionate about always acting in the client’s best interests,” she said. “Heaven help an underwriter who did not read their policy wording on a claim, because Robert loved to take them on to act in our client’s best interests.”
Claims time, she said, was when Robert believed a broker showed their “true worth to the client”. She said her husband was also “passionate” about giving back.
Robert, she said, really enjoyed his work as a National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) mentor.
“He would always take time to help fellow brokers or underwriters,” Mandy said. “He believed education was the key to our industry’s future.”
She said giving back was in his DNA.
“As it is in mine, which is why we were perfect together,” said Mandy.
They always saw their work, she said, as both local broker and part of the community.
The July fundraiser is likely to be great fun.
Last year, Mandy’s son John played in the band and daughter, Jaslyn, who is part of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mob at St James College, performed an Acknowledgement of Country with a dance.
There were also two bottles of famed Grange wine, an e-bike and a Dolphins rugby league jersey signed by the coach Wayne Bennett for the auction.
“Donations just rolled in the door during the day, which was wonderful,” said Mandy.
If you would like to attend the Leukaemia Foundation fundraising lunch celebrating Robert Cooper, please click here to buy your ticket.
