By Hayley Pearson and Lauren De Cesare
You usually know us as bright and bubbly — but when it comes to the health of our families, we turn into fierce warriors!
That’s why in 2023, we’ve officially joined the fight against disease and illness with The Hospital Research Foundation Group.
Over the past six years, we’ve supported many campaigns from this beautiful not-for-profit organisation — especially The Longest Table fundraiser, through which we’ve raised over $300,000 for one of the Group’s charities, Australian Breast Cancer Research.
But that barely scratches the surface! The Hospital Research Foundation Group has more than 10 charities under its umbrella, and supports more than 50 areas of medical research and patient care from birth to end of life, across every public hospital and community in South Australia — so, this isn’t a small fight!
If you look around at your family and friends, chances are that you know someone who has been impacted by a disease or illness. Every South Australian stands to benefit from their amazing work, and we’re proud to be fighting the good fight together.
Here’s a little more of their story…
Illustration: SAHMRI and Bragg Comprehensive Cancer Centre (currently under construction)
From birth
Bringing a healthy child into the world is one of life’s true gifts. Sadly though, not everyone can experience this joy, due to complications with conception, pregnancy or birth.
Thanks to generous donors, fundraisers and ticket-buyers in the Hospital Research Foundation Home Lottery, they’ve been able to fund world-leading research and prenatal care in our hospitals to improve outcomes for mums and bubs.
Dr Maggie Centenera.
Just one of the projects funded by the foundation aims to improve IVF success rates through revolutionary technology that can determine the healthiest embryos. Another project involves trialling a new device that can rapidly diagnose pre-eclampsia within 30 minutes — which currently takes up to 24 long hours!
These incredible leaps and bounds from great minds in the lab can be restricted by tight funding, so researchers rely heavily on support from organisations like The Hospital Research Foundation Group to take it to the next level.
To end of life
Patient care is also a huge focus area for the foundation, particularly palliative care. When someone is faced with a terminal or life-limiting illness, palliative care can help support the patient and their loved ones through this difficult time. Someone may be in palliative care for days, months or even years, so it’s really about helping them live in comfort and bringing them moments of joy, so they can create cherished memories with family.
The Hospital Research Foundation Group funds care programs right across South Australia’s palliative care units, from art therapy and pet therapy to new approaches to pain relief and more. Just one example of the programs that the Group helps to fund is the beautiful miniature horses from Nolton Park Horses Healing Hearts, who visit over 20,000 adults and children each year inside hospitals, hospice programs and aged care facilities to bring them joy.
Image Credit :: Nolton Park Horses Healing Hearts
And everything in between
And, of course, the foundation funds initiatives to fight a range of diseases, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, mental health, COVID-19, kidney disease, diabetes and so much more. They’re playing a major part in the start-up of the Bragg Comprehensive Cancer Centre (BCCC) currently under construction on North Terrace. Once this phenomenal centre is completed, the BCCC expects to save 2,000 lives per year through cancer research, patient care, clinical trials, support and preventative measures for South Australians and beyond.
The BCCC will also be co-located with the Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy and Research — the first place in the Southern Hemisphere to provide proton therapy (a type of radiation therapy that uses protons rather than x-rays to treat cancer) for children and young people with cancer. And that’s going to be right here in Adelaide!
This is some truly amazing stuff, and as we join forces with The Hospital Research Foundation Group, we hope you feel equally as proud about supporting these life-changing projects. So, what are you waiting for? Join the good fight with us!
