Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On Friday, 11 May this year, I had the genuine pleasure of attending a lunch function at the Gerringong town hall in the Gilmore electorate. The event was to celebrate a significant milestone in the history of the Children’s Medical Research Institute Gerringong Committee. The milestone was the fact that this committee had raised $1 million in support of the charity since 1959. It is significant in that Gerringong is only a small town. The committee and its many members over the years have worked tirelessly in the face of competing demands to raise this amount of money.

Of recent memory, last year 12 local ladies bared all to produce a calendar that understandably attracted headlines nationwide. The 12 local women were aged between 50 and 80 years of age. The youngest, Cheryl Barnes, who was 51 at the time, is also the wife of the photographer, Gary, who took the tasteful pictures. The calendar girls were Patricia Fayne for January, Bronwen Green for February, Jennifer Stafford for March, Diana Vickers for April, Lesley Morgan for May, Janice Woodlands for June, Cheryl Barnes for July, Laurel Vining for August, Helen Jones for September, Joan Crane for October, Moya Payne for November and Dorothy May for December.

The women themselves got together to raise $18,500 for its production, with contributions flowing from local support, including individual and business donations, not only from the Kiama area but also from outside the immediate community. All up the calendar realised $85,000. It was a sterling effort that required not only courage but belief in their commitment to the charity they were supporting. I was awed by their gesture. Anyone who wants to buy one should let me know, as they are genuine keepsakes done by some quite real gutsy ladies. Guest speaker Dr Roger Reddel, who is the Acting Director of the CMRI, said:

I congratulate the committee on their extraordinary achievement. Their ongoing support has made it possible for CMRI scientists to pursue long-term research goals regardless of changes in emphasis of the various funding agencies.

Two recent stories deserve mention: the recent discovery of the components of telomerase, an enzyme involved in 85 per cent of all cancers, and the discovery relevant to cancer treatment that was made by Dr Megan Fabbro in CMRI’s neurochemistry group. Dr Fabbro was recently named Cure Cancer Australia Foundation’s national young researcher of the year. I applaud the work of the Children’s Medical Research Institute, which strongly believes that the biggest medical advances come from fundamentally new insights into how the human body works and what goes wrong in disease. Obtaining these insights takes years of persistent work and creative thinking to transcend the limitations of our current knowledge.

For my part, the efforts of the Gerringong committee, both past and present, are worthy of mention in this chamber, for they show the compassion and charity that still constitute the fabric of small communities and the quality that binds them. The achievements of this small group serve as an example to younger generations of the Kiama district, of which Gerringong is part. The act of giving serves an integral part of a cohesive and just society, which is our cultural heritage. I cannot begin to say how proud I am of the president, Margaret Weir, and her team. You are simply the best.

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