Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

One of the largest public health challenges facing Australia today is dementia. Dementia is currently the leading cause of death for Australian women and the second leading cause of death overall in this country. More than 430,000 Australians have been diagnosed with dementia. Without a medical breakthrough, this figure is expected to exceed one million by 2056. The global impact of dementia report estimates that the number of people with dementia worldwide will rise to 135 million by 2050.

Last week, on Friday 22 November, the 10th Wipeout Dementia event was held at Bondi Beach in my electorate of Wentworth. Wipeout Dementia is a fundraising campaign championed by the property industry. It's sponsored by Morgans, Aoyuan International, Colliers, m3property and Winten Property Group, with in-kind support from Hurley and The Bucket List. This fundraising campaign supports The Dementia Momentum—a Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing initiative which aims to advance large-scale big data research into the prevention of dementia and to increase community awareness about dementia.

Since its launch in 2015, Wipeout Dementia has attracted extraordinary corporate support, including a number of regular senior executive surfers and generous donors. To date, Wipeout Dementia has raised over $1 million in funds and generated widespread media coverage. The ambassadors for Wipeout Dementia are Richard Grellman, the chairman of IPH Ltd and FPR Ltd and the former chairman of the Association of Surfing Professionals (International) Ltd, and the 1978 world surfing champion Wayne 'Rabbit' Bartholomew. Wipeout Dementia is held in honour of Richard's wife, Suellen, who was diagnosed with young onset Alzheimer's disease aged 61 and is now in the advanced stages of the disease, requiring full-time high-level care, aged just 67.

Dementia is the second leading cause of death in Australia and the leading cause of death in the United Kingdom. Without a medical breakthrough, the number of people with dementia is expected to reach 1.1 million by 2056, nearly three times as many as today. The number of new Australian cases of dementia is projected to increase from the current rate of 250 people per day to over 650 people per day by 2056. The global impact of dementia report estimates that the number of people with dementia worldwide will rise to 135 million by 2050.

The key message of Wipeout Dementia is for all Australians to get active to reduce their risk of dementia. Participants in the event are fantastic exemplars of the role of physical activity and mental activity in middle life to improve brain health in late life. Together, these Wipeout events have raised over $1 million in funds and generated widespread media coverage for the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing's initiative. Each Wipeout event has a goal of raising $100,000 for further research into dementia. Supporting this research will help millions of people in the future and, hopefully, alter the direction of this issue. Let me also acknowledge Anthony Scott, my cycling buddy, who has personally been touched by dementia and who participated in Wipeout Dementia last week.

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