Blog: The Brain Dialogues, filtered by tag: Fundraising

KATE CROSBIE and HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au Losing a loved one in your family to Alzheimer’s disease is painful and for Susan Coorey, member of Team CHeBA since 2015, the impact is manifold. Susan lost her grandmother to Alzheimer’s disease in 1992 and in January this year she said goodbye to her Aunt Rita as a result of Alzheimer’s disease.  Her beloved Mother also has the condition. “Alzheimer’s disease is very traumatic, not just for the person diagnosed but also for those around them. Our family has been affected multiple times and it really emphasises the need for greater… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au At the age of just 61, a mother of three adoring children and seven beautiful grandchildren was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.  Her specialist physician was CHeBA Co-Director Professor Henry Brodaty.  A mere five years on and this loving Mum, Suellen Grellman,  is now living in a high care nursing home and requires assistance with everything that she does, including eating and drinking.  Understandably, Suellen’s daughter, Sarah Holmes, has found this journey tough.  “Watching my vibrant, confident, intelligent Mum deal and… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au Positive ageing representative, Mr Col Blake, will be running his 43rd City2Surf this year (having missed the first 2 events) and since 2013 has been generously supporting CHeBA in his extraordinary commitment to the annual event.  The 14km hilly run is considered not just Sydney’s favourite sporting event, but the world’s largest fun run boasting more than 80,000 participants in recent years.  Since the very first run on 5 September 1971, Col has gone from completing the event in an enviable 57 minutes, to winning the family category with his sons… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au Twenty of Sydney’s corporate surfers, led by Ambassador Richard Grellman AM, combined forces to raise awareness around the modifiable lifestyle factors for improving brain health, as part of the third Wipeout Dementia® campaign. The gruelling four-week strength for surfing training course culminated in a Surf Off on Saturday, where participants demonstrated their newly honed skills while raising funds for The Dementia Momentum®, an initiative of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA). The latest campaign – with major sponsors Morgans and… Read More

KATE CROSBIE and HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au Alceon became the latest Teal Member of The Dementia Momentum® through a generous donation of $5,000 in May 2016. Alceon’s donation follows the attendance of Founder and Managing Director, Trevor Loewensohn, at the corporate leader luncheon hosted by Genworth to support The Dementia Momentum® on 29 March 2016. Spokesman for The Dementia Momentum® and Chairman of Genworth, Richard Grellman AM, addressed the attendees of this event and called on the corporate world to accept the challenge of increasing research funding into dementia… Read More

KATE CROSBIE Dave Brodaty, son of CHeBA Co-Director Professor Henry Brodaty, is optimistic about the future of brain ageing. “It is apparent even through Henry’s medical career that our understanding of brain ageing and the medical responses to it have developed considerably,” says Dave. “Being the eternal optimist, I am confident that with the great minds researching this area, even though a cure may not be attainable yet, the course of brain ageing will be dealt with much better – and become far less of an unknown.” This is the first year Dave will be entering the City 2 Surf, alongside… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au CHeBA Champion Warren King has a gruelling training regime for the 2015 Asia Pacific Ironman, an event at which he hopes to raise public awareness and money for dementia research. Since becoming a CHeBA Champion in 2013, Warren has fundraised for dementia research at a number of events, but the Asia Pacific Ironman on March 22 will be his biggest challenge yet. Warren began triathlon training in 2012, at which point he says he was “a terrible swimmer, hadn’t ridden a bike in years and was an occasional runner”. A family history of Alzheimer’s disease… Read More

STEPHANIE CAMPBELL, CHeBA CHAMPION A few months ago something happened to me that would change my life forever. It was Sunday morning, March 16 and I was about to complete my 57th solo skydive. Gazing out onto the vista 14,000ft below, my fingers felt stiff and numb on the cool metalwork of the plane door as I steadied myself in preparation for my next move. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the icy, fast-moving air, and then leapt out into the void. I didn't know it then, but in five minutes' time I would be fighting for my life on the ground. In a horrifying… Read More

PROFESSOR HENRY BRODATY, MD, PhD This article was originally published in the August edition of Montefiore LIFE Magazine. When I first started working as a doctor in 1970, Alzheimer's disease was thought of as a rare disease only affecting people under the age of 65 years.  No-one was much interested in older people with brain disease or mental illness and they were all lumped together under a diagnosis of senile psychosis or senile dementia.  Hasn't the world changed!  No-one had heard of Alzheimer's disease 40 years ago.  Now it is a household word and what people fear most (along with… Read More