🌞 The football club paying for fertility treatments

There are some weeks when it takes me hours to find a snippet of good news, and I eventually resort to begging asking the TDA team if they’ve seen anything.

This week was not one of those weeks. 

In this edition, we have good news about sport, health, culture, wildlife and a wholesome Aussie story.

I won’t say that I’m carrying the weight of TDA on my back but… 

Chelsea will become the first UK Women’s Super League club to fund its players’ fertility treatment, including freezing their eggs.

Last month, Sam Kerr’s former club announced a fund for every player to access fertility support, assessment, counselling and treatment, in partnership with a local fertility clinic.  

The club said it wanted to “raise awareness about reproductive health and support women in making informed decisions when they think about starting a family.” 

The Observer reports the club has a fund understood to be worth at least £189,000 (around $AU356,000.) Every season, the 27 member women’s squad will be able to access IVF, gynaecological treatments  or reproductive health consultations, paid for by the club.

Ben Shelton of the United States celebrates match point against Carlos Alcaraz of Spain during their Men's Singles Quarterfinal match on Day Ten of the 2026 US Open (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Friday marked the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In another silver lining story, I wanted to tell you about 9/11 Day. It started as a grassroots tribute by Jay Winuk, who lost his brother Glenn Winuk in the attacks, and his friend David Paine. 

9/11 Day describes itself as “transforming "the anniversary of one of our darkest days in history into America’s largest day of doing good.” On the 25th anniversary, their goal was to pledge one million good deeds. 

As part of the good deed initiatives, people are planting trees, making thousands of meal packs and being a little bit kinder.

There's one week left to back the people making a difference in your community.

Westfield Local Heroes shines a spotlight on the volunteers, organisers and achievers who give their time and heart to make their community better – those who are completely deserving of recognition. Since 2018, this program has backed over 990 local heroes and organisations with funding, partnerships and a well-deserved spotlight. This year, up to $1.25M in community grants is available, and your vote is what can help them get there. It only takes 30 seconds to vote and make a lasting impact.

^{Voting closes 20 September, 6pm AEST.}

A 12-year-old NSW boy is walking 540km to raise funds for better paediatric healthcare access in regional Australia. Dusty was inspired to take action after seeing his mum drive over six hours to take his brother to a paediatrician appointment in Sydney.

The year six student set off from his Warren home in central-western NSW on 30 August and has since walked over 300km and raised $300,000. Dusty wants to raise $1 million by the time he reaches Canberra next week, where he’s scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at Parliament House on Tuesday. 

The young advocate says he wants to “help raise a voice for country kids” in the hopes that “every child in regional Australia gets access to healthcare”. 

Funds raised from his “Dollar for Dusty” walk will go towards Little Wings, a charity that provides free flight and ground transportation for sick children and their families in remote areas. You can follow Dusty’s journey here, or donate to Dollar for Dusty here.

Recently, I found out about the hunt for Australia’s Kindest Person, an award which celebrates the everyday Australians making a difference. 

The awards have 15 finalists across five categories. One of them who caught my eye was George Mann, a 20-year-old medical student based in Queensland’s Townsville. 

George’s alter-ego is ‘Dr Spiderman’ - your friendly neighbourhood spiderman whose mission is to make “hospital visits a little less scary for children.”

He said his goal is to “put a smile on the face of every child I meet, not only to brighten their day, but to help them build a positive relationship with the healthcare system”.

I would highly recommend checking out the rest of the nominees here.

What do Julie Andrews and Bad Bunny have in common? Making history.

The unlikely pairing won awards at this week’s two-night Creative Arts Emmys – which have traditionally honoured technical and behind-the-scenes television achievements. 

Julie Andrews (or Mary Poppins, Maria von Trapp, Queen Clarisse or Shrek’s mother-in-law, depending on what you know her as) won her Emmy for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for her performance as the voice of Lady Whistledown on Bridgerton. 

Her win makes the 90-year-old  the oldest actress to win an Emmy.

Moving towards music, Bad Bunny won his first Emmy with the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) category for his Super Bowl performance earlier this year. It’s the second time a Super Bowl performance has won an award, following Kendrick Lamar’s performance in 2025. 

His Super Bowl show won a total of seven Emmys, breaking the record for most Emmys won by a halftime performance, according to Rolling Stone. 

The show won for music direction, lighting design, choreography and other categories, but these don’t count as Bad Bunny’s individual wins.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed Timor-Leste has eliminated trachoma (an infectious cause of blindness) as a public health problem.

 The announcement means the WHO followed a rigorous, multi-year process to determine if trachoma poses a public health problem and documented Timor-Leste’s “ health’s system’s capacity to detect, investigate and manage cases that occur in the future.” 

Timor-Leste becomes the 33rd country worldwide to achieve the milestone - which is even more significant because it means trachoma has been eliminated as a public health problem throughout the South-East Asia Region. 

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described it as  a “significant step towards our global target of eliminating trachoma worldwide by 2030.” 

For our last story, I wanted to bring it back to Australia. 

Bilby populations are rising at Taronga Western Plains Zoo, with recent population monitoring giving zoo staff an estimate of around 212 Greater Bilbies in the 110 hectare feral predator-free area. 

The recent survey recorded more than 100 bilbies, including 45 that hadn’t previously been recorded. Bilbies are nationally threatened, so these signs of population growth are really positive. 

Taronga Western Plains Zoo Conservation Keeper Leonie Pascua said: “To see the bilby breeding population and program continue to grow inside the Taronga Sanctuary is incredibly rewarding for our team. Every new bilby recorded represents another step forward in securing the future of this species."

Today is also National Bilby Day - how fitting!