For years, he was told how life-saving his plasma was, as an AB positive donor.

"They don't want my blood, because no-one around here needs it, but I donate plasma because it is compatible with anyone," he said.

"The plasma donation takes about an hour and a half, it's a long process, and they would talk about how the plasma would help burns victims and children with cancer."

Mr Holmes never imagined his own child would one day be the recipient of such a donation.

But that was the reality he was faced with, sitting in the Albury Base Hospital in December 2017.

"Charlotte had flu-like symptoms, and was getting hot at night," he said.

"We went to the doctor on the Saturday and the doctors thought she had the flu, and come Sunday night, she was that hot you could fry an egg off her.

"We went to Albury Base and after a while, they thought she was a funny colour and decided to take some blood samples.

"They took bloods and said, 'There's a 99 per cent chance your child has Leukaemia, go to the children's hospital in Melbourne now."

The Howlong dad never suspected his little six-year-old, with her sniffles and fever, was fighting a life-threatening condition.

Only a matter of hours after their visit to Albury Hospital, Charlotte had started cancer treatment.

"She was very, very lucky they had a bed for her, because she was then admitted to the children's hospital," he said.

"She spent Christmas and the first six weeks there.

"It was probably four weeks until we walked together to the window; she just couldn't get out of bed.

"Then when you're stable, they discharge you from hospital, but tell you not to go too far.

"That's where Ronald McDonald House comes in."

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For Charlotte, those initial months staying at the Parkville accommodation were the longest period she had been away from her family and friends.

"I remember when I was diagnosed mum took me to the hospital, but she had to go home to look after my sister, so I slept there by myself and she came back in the morning," she said.

"It was scary sleeping with no parents around.

"In the middle of the night when your neighbours are in the toilet forever, you have to go all the way downstairs to the toilet.

"When I was in hospital for one of the Christmases, I had nine visitors that day and my pa and my gran got me this art thing so I wouldn't be bored.

"I have heaps of art stuff that I still haven't done."

Specialists gave a tentative timeframe of two to three years for beating Charlotte's cancer.

Mr Holmes said he was clueless about what the chemotherapy would involve.

"At the time, she was six - the worst injury she'd ever had needed a Band-Aid - so she was not someone who could easily take tablets," he said.

"They have an alternative for kids, but Charlotte just didn't like the liquid, so we would spend two, three hours crushing up pills in chocolate sauce for her to then not really eat them, so the doctors said 'Right, we'll give her a gastric tube'.

"That's a tube that goes down your nose and straight into your stomach, and they can then get the medicine in a syringe and put it in - she can't even taste it.

"But you throw up a lot when you're sick, and she would throw the tube up, and doctors having to take it out was quite horrific for her in an emergency."

The inevitable hair loss was hard for both parents and child to deal with.

"I didn't like that I had to have the dressing [on my face for the tube]," Charlotte said.

"So many people looked at me and asked me what happened and if I was a girl or a boy.

"If my sister had a cold I had to stay away in my room.

"If there was a coronavirus outbreak, then I would be the one staying home, because I would be getting sick easily."

There were other side effects, and medical interventions - so many it was hard to keep track.

Charlotte had a port in her chest - a box that delivers chemotherapy directly into the veins - and a fish-hook-like needle must be used to remove it following treatment.

Outgoing, cheeky Charlotte sometimes couldn't find the energy to talk.

But among the pain, tears and gut-wrenching mirror reflections of paleness and sunken-in eyes, there were happy moments.

"There was another little boy and I used to go out of my room and play with him, he had a remote control car," Charlotte said.

"I did get to go see Pink at a concert.

"When I was in hospital Andy Lee came, but I was asleep, so my mum got a photo of him standing over me."

Both the Royal Children's Hospital and Ronald McDonald House charities provided a range of distractions that kept them all sane, Mr Holmes said.

"They organise a lot of tickets and she went to an AFL game," he said.

"You do have days where you get to go to the zoo or the aquarium, or somebody will come in with a dog you can pat.

"The hardest thing is probably that you can't do anything; you can't fix it, you just have to sit there and watch it.

"Being in a children's cancer ward in a hospital ... nobody wants to be there.

"Some of the people she met didn't get better."

But Charlotte has become better, to the gratitude and relief of her family.

Her treatments have reduced from weekly to three-monthly and are now considered "maintenance".

The now-eight-year-old will continue with tablets for a few weeks but was able to ring the "end of treatment" bell at the Royal Children's on Friday last week.

"When she was finishing the chemo they asked Charlotte who her favourite people were from the hospital, as they have a little goodbye party," Mr Holmes said.

"A couple of her favourite nurses weren't available.

"We had left the hospital part and were in one of the shops - it's like a shopping centre there - and these two ladies who had helped her out had run through this place with all these people to find us, just to say goodbye.

"That was nice."

Charlotte has launched straight into year three at Albury Public School.

"She's pretty switched on - she didn't have to redo year one," Mr Holmes said.

"That first year would have been when she was riding her bike without training wheels and learning to swim, and we're playing catch-up on those things.

"But she can tie her own laces - she's very happy with that - and likes to dress herself."

Charlotte is a little fashionista and asked her dad if they could go look at the big-brand stores in Melbourne after ringing the bell at hospital last week.

But it's not something she wants to do for work as a grown-up, and her dad thinks she'll one day contribute to the system that restored her health.

"She wants to be a paramedic or something like that," Mr Holmes said.

"She really loves the show, and has seen a lot of people being helped in hospital."

Charlotte said she "doesn't know" what she wants to be, "but it involves nothing around fashion".

"I've still got like 20 years to figure it out," she said.

The annual Howlong Community Garage Sales will raise money for the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre Trust Fund.

More than 70 homes are registered for Sunday's event, organised by Tim Holmes Real Estate.

"We do generally sponsor the town garage sales, and the Lions Club couldn't manage it this year, so we said we would take over," Mr Holmes said.

"The money usually go to their benefits, but we decided to help out with the cancer trust because it means a lot with Charlotte.

"She has just done two-and-a-half years of chemo.

"We're a small community - if someone is unwell, everyone feels it."

Home owners' registrations, map sales and a sausage sizzle at a town sale in Hawkins Street will all go to the trust, with up to $3000 raised in previous years.

Kerryne Holmes said the community had already supported her family so much and this was a way to celebrate her granddaughter finishing treatment.

"Tim and I thought it was only fitting that this event should go towards cancer as a way of honouring her and her journey with leukaemia," she said.

In 2018-2019, the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre Trust Fund invested more than $151,000 in the Wellness Centre attached to the facility, which provides emotional, spiritual and psychological support to patients and carers.

The Howlong Community Garage Sales will kick off from 8am on Sunday.