"The only thing worse than being diagnosed with cancer is being a kid diagnosed with cancer." LabRat, 2026.
100% of the profits from sales of LabRat Designs products on this website will go to Ronald McDonald House (https://ronaldmcdonaldhouse.org.au/), an independent, non-profit organisation which supports families with sick children undergoing medical treatment in Australia for serious medical conditions, such as kids with cancer. Profits/commission from product sales on this site are 20% of the retail price - typically raising in the range AUD $5-10 per item, depending on the specific product.
What inspired this? As well as having plenty of time recently, while being a LabRat (Patient #10) on a clinical trial in the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, to sketch a few cartoons, one of my own grandchildren, Nicky, was diagnosed with B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in 2025 at the tender age of 2 years old.
With cancer treatments for kids under 18 not available - amazingly enough - where Nicky's family lives in Canberra (the nation's capital!!), Ronald McDonald House was vital in helping his family stay together in Sydney through the early and gruelling phases of his chemotherapy treatments at the Sydney Children's Hospital, which made my own chemotherapy journey look rather tame. Nicky's treatment will continue for at least another 2 years. Accommodation in Sydney would otherwise have been prohibitively expensive for the family.
Raising funds to support such families with the costs of accommodation in capital cities can often be overshadowed by charitable efforts aimed at raising funds for cancer research. While community fundraising for cancer research is wonderful, it's worth noting that the vast bulk of cancer research funding comes from government sources, and particularly the Australian Federal Government's National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), which has a medical research budget of AUD $3.8 BILLION (2026-27).
But many families with seriously ill children have more immediate priorities: firstly to get their child to treatment, which for most serious illnesses is invariably only available in the major capital cities, and secondly, for the family to remain together while a child is undergoing what can be typically long (sometimes years) and expensive treatments far from where they live.
LabRat Designs was inspired following my own diagnosis with a blood cancer, Multiple Myeloma, in 2023, which was followed by a series of 'standard of care' chemotherapy treatments which were less than successful in reducing the disease.
Consequently in early 2026, I applied for and succeeded on getting on not just one but three clinical trials of new Multiple Myeloma treatments. This may just be some kind of record? Unfortunately in the first two trials, I drew the short straw, in that I was 'randomised' to receive a bog-standard chemotherapy treatment for comparison purposes, rather than the cutting-edge treatments which were the subject of the trials.
But in May 2026, I finally succeeded in getting onto a third trial: a Phase 1 (first in humans) trial of a new 'in vivo' CAR-T cell therapy called InMMyCAR (hence some of the LabRat cartoons with LabRat in a car). CAR-T cell therapy involves genetic modification of my own 'killer' T Cells which are an essential - but up until now, essentially non-functional - element of my immune system. I was lucky enough to become Patient No.10 on this trial.
The depth and duration of response after the initial 3 pretty gruelling weeks in hospital in Sydney remain to be seen, but CAR-T cell therapy is generally accepted to be at the cutting edge of cancer treatments and the early data from the InMMyCAR trial (patients 1-6) shows great promise.
Hence my unilateral declaration (as illustrated in the first of the LabRat cartoons) that 2026 is in fact (contrary to the Chinese Zodiac showing 2026 to be Year of the Fire Horse) the Year of the LabRat. If anyone can beat 3 clinical trials in one year, !'d be only too happy to rescind that claim!
LabRat Designs are Copyright LabRat (Guy Reeve) 2026 and 100% of all profits are donated to Ronald McDonald House.
All products ordered through the LabRat Designs website - as was the original prototype 'Year of the LabRat' T Shirt - are fulfilled throught PrintLocker - printlocker.com.au
