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For The Hospital Research Foundation Group, supporting life-changing medical research is an everyday kind of thing.

You may recognise their efforts from their popular Home Lottery or annual #ForkCancer event, The Longest Table. However, the true impact of their work goes well beyond these events, with funds raised going to life-changing medical research, hospital care and health services.

The Hospital Research Foundation (THRF) Group funds over 50 areas of disease and illness across South Australian public hospitals, research institutes and communities. Its mission is clear: allow everyone to live each day to its fullest, regardless of the health challenges they face.

It all starts with research conducted by the incredible people who dedicate every day to fighting disease. Let’s meet three real-life Adelaide heroes:

Dr Sarah Boyle, Breast Cancer

Dr Boyle is an emerging leader in her field, specialising in the biology of breast cancer. She’s dedicated her life to fighting breast cancer and now, it’s personal.

“My mother had surgery and radiotherapy to treat breast cancer twice,” says Dr Boyle. “Hers is a success story and I’m grateful I still get to experience those everyday moments with her. While this was my initial inspiration for pursuing a career in cancer research, I continue to gain inspiration from the women I’m working with, who have lived experience of this complex disease.”

THRF Group proudly funded Dr Boyle’s early research to investigate the physical forces that occur when tumours grow and spread. She’s now progressing this work with both THRF Group and Government backing.

“In understanding the factors driving breast cancer growth and spread, we can identify ways to intervene and stop the effects of the environment and forces on cancer progression, contributing to better outcomes for patients.”

Dr Boyle has gone above and beyond for this fight, but you don’t have to be a researcher to create everyday moments for people battling breast cancer.

By fundraising or donating to THRF Group, or buying a Home Lottery ticket, you’re directly supporting research like Dr Boyle’s that aims to halt breast cancer spread.

Professor Timothy Kleinig, Stroke

Professor Kleinig fights for the everyday — every day. As a globally-recognised neurologist and Head of the Stroke Unit at Royal Adelaide Hospital, he saves the lives of people who present to emergency with stroke.

Time is of the essence for stroke, with any delay in treatment resulting in a very different outcome to a patient’s recovery or disability — that’s if they survive the stroke at the time.

And thanks to Professor Kleinig’s worldleading research, backed by THRF Group, he’s trialling new treatments for stroke that are having remarkable recovery outcomes even if you miss the critical treatment window.

He says, “There have been enormous advancements in stroke treatments in recent years. The latest involves pulling the clot out directly from the affected artery in the brain. Thanks to THRF Group’s generous support, we’ve been trialling this procedure and several new clot-dissolving medications, with exceptional results.

“We’ve seen patients who participate in the trial make a complete recovery from something very likely to have been a fatal stroke otherwise.” Now, these patients can continue to spend everyday moments with their loved ones.

Associate Professor Quenten Schwarz, Childhood Cancer

Associate Professor Schwarz has spent a lifetime helping kids and their families have a better life — free from the heartache of childhood cancer.

As a world expert in neuron development and Head of Neurovascular Research at the Centre for Cancer Biology, his work spans childhood cancers such as neuroblastoma, glioblastoma and medulloblastoma, and neurodevelopmental disorders like schizophrenia and autism.

And while he tries to keep the hardline as a researcher and academic, as a dad, he knows how important his research is.

The story of Edwina, now 10, but who battled neuroblastoma as a two-year-old, is one where a little emotion creeps in.

“She’s an inspiration to many people,” he says. “I know my family is always so emotional about her story. My daughter cut her hair and donated it for neuroblastoma research. Having Edwina and her mum attend the fundraiser event for this meant so much.”

Edwina’s story and others like hers give Associate Professor Schwarz the purpose of finding better treatments with less damaging side effects.

“The disease itself is not treated well. Unfortunately, about 50 percent of kids diagnosed with neuroblastoma succumb to it.

“We need better ways of treating it, better ways of diagnosing it. And underpinning that, we need more fundamental research into why it arises in the first place.”

THRF Group is proud to fund Associate Professor Schwarz’s research into neuroblastoma, which has led to a national Medical Research Future Fund grant to progress this crucial work.

None of these phenomenal researchers can continue their vital work without financial support from organisations like The Hospital Research Foundation Group. That’s where you come in. Give the gift of the everyday by donating at hospitalresearch.org.au.

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Millie Looker

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