Student Story · Regional Australia · 2026

Lachlan Wants to Be the Doctor His Family Never Got

Lachlan grew up in regional Australia, where the nearest hospital is an hour's drive and a GP appointment can take weeks. His goal has always been simple. He wants to help. To become a doctor, the kind that families like his actually get to see.

When Lachlan was very young, his mum came home from her service in the Australian Air Force with an injury, unable to walk again. She does not talk much about what happened. Neither does Lachlan. What they talk about is what comes next.

For this family, life has never been simple. His younger brother Cooper has Angelman syndrome. Cooper cannot communicate, cannot feed himself, cannot walk. His older sister Zoe left school to become a full-time carer, for their mum and for Cooper. Zoe's biggest worry should be what to have for lunch. Instead she is managing medications, appointments, and the ten thousand invisible tasks that keep a household alive when the person who used to do them is unable.

She did not choose the circumstances. She chose to show up anyway, every day, for the family that needed her. There is no other parent, no contingency. This family holds itself together through a quality of commitment that most people will never be called upon to demonstrate.

While Zoe was doing that, Lachlan was studying. He is now in his first year of a radiation therapy degree.

“I want to be the doctor that families like mine actually get to see. The one who understands what it costs just to get through the day.”

Lachlan, First-Year Radiation Therapy Student

Australia's Children Are Falling Behind

Lachlan's story is his own, but the circumstances that shaped it are not rare. Across Australia, the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students is wider today than it was fifteen years ago, and for students in financial hardship, the barriers to education are growing, not shrinking.

Behind each of those figures is a child who started behind and, without someone in their corner, is likely to stay there.

Lachlan has A Start in Life. "Right now, I'm relying on part-time work and student loans to get through my degree. Support like this would take away a lot of the financial stress and help me focus on my studies."

For the next student in need, it might mean their first tutoring session. Their first mentor. Their first person who shows up just for them.

A Simple Choice

The research is unambiguous: early, targeted support for disadvantaged students changes outcomes and changes lives. Lachlan is proof of that. So is Zoe, a young woman who gave up her own education to hold her family together, who deserves someone fighting for her future too.

As a registered Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) charity, every dollar donated to A Start in Life is fully tax deductible. Every year, Australians hand over money in tax they were never legally required to pay, simply because no one told them there was a better place to put it. Under Australian tax law, your donation before 30 June is fully deductible.

Every dollar reaches a student like Lachlan: someone of genuine ability navigating circumstances that would stop most people. We have been finding those students for over a hundred years. With your support, we will keep finding them.

Donate before 30 June. Your gift is fully tax-deductible.

For a student like Lachlan, it is anything but small. Every tax-deductible donation to A Start in Life goes directly to supporting a student in need across NSW and ACT.