Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to talk about two wonderful people in my community, Trudi and Stephen Hay, who have dedicated so much of their time to helping others through creative and fruitful fundraising efforts.

Last week I attended Trudi Hay's annual high tea at her property in Greenvale, in my electorate. For nine years running Trudi has called on her network of friends and hosted a beautiful sit-down high tea for the purpose of raising money for Northern Health hospital. Each year Trudi and the hospital decide what is the most beneficial piece of equipment needed, and they dedicate their fundraising efforts towards that. This year Trudi raised over $9,000, which will go towards the purchase of a chemotherapy chair and a privacy screen, with a little bit extra left over for the benefit and welfare of breast cancer patients who are being treated there.

It was 10 years ago when Trudi's friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. She and her friendship group wanted to do all they could to help out their friend. They would take turns cooking meals, taking the kids to different activities and accompanying their friend to chemotherapy treatment. When it was Trudi's turn to take her friend to chemotherapy, she said that she felt helpless. This is what sparked her to contact the fundraising team at Northern Health to do what she could to give back to the community. Trudi turned a tragedy into a positive, and decided she was going to do what she did best—that was to organise and activate a community to get behind an important cause and raise much-needed funds for the health and wellbeing of the community.

So far Trudi's annual fundraisers have raised over $50,000 and have gone to purchasing incredibly important chemotherapy equipment for Northern Health. I'm also happy that her achievements have been recognised by Northern Health. Two years ago Trudi was invited to go on the foundation board as a director and has been there ever since. Together Trudi and her husband, Stephen, have raised well over $300,000 for the hospital and have been instrumental in raising funds for their research centre as well. Trudi says:

Both my husband and I have had simple upbringings and through sacrifices and hard work and contacts we are now in a comfortable position. We love to give back, we love our community and we love helping others.

Stephen, a former real estate agent, was approached to be the auctioneer at Northern Health's annual dinner 20 years ago. He has since been on the board for around 12 years and has developed a robust fundraising approach for Northern Health. One year he used his networks in the building and real estate industry to build an entire house that was auctioned off at one of Northern Health's annual dinners. They've managed to source helicopter rides for auctions, and their creative fundraising ideas and spirits have been of great benefit to Northern Health. Congratulations, Trudi and Stephen Hay.