$100 million raised since 1958

More than 300 people gathered at Parliament House last week to celebrate 50 years of community fundraising in support of the Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI).

Dedicated fundraising committees, business and individual supporters have together raised over $100 million for research into illnesses affecting children and babies since the Institute was established in 1958.

Hundreds of committee members from Sydney, regional New South Wales and Canberra attended the Parliament House function. Other prominent supporters of the CMRI who attended included music legend Glenn A Baker, television news host Ross Symonds, artist Nafisa Naomi and General Director of Channel 7 Sydney, Tim McDonald.

The first fundraising committee of the CMRI was established in Kangaroo Valley in April 1959, at the time a small community of just over 100 families. Their first fundraising effort netted £188 from doorknocking, a tremendous effort considering the small population. The Kangaroo Valley Committee is the longest continually running committee of the CMRI and its members have made a considerable contribution to research programs at the institute.

Also present at the function were members from the Canberra committee, which in its first year raised £14,000 from a population of 48,000. The work of these fundraising committees is absolutely vital to the research successes of the CMRI.

The achievements in medical research in the past 50 years have been priceless and with continued support there is every reason to be confident that the pioneering work at institutes such as the CMRI will have similar benefits to the health of our children's children.

About Children’s Medical Research Institute

CMRI was founded in 1958 to conduct research into childhood diseases. The basic philosophy then, as it is now, was that a deeper understanding of disease would lead to better forms of treatment, or better still, to the prevention of diseases that cause premature death or long-term disability.
 
Over the past half century, CMRI has contributed to advances in paediatric health in many ways, including the improved survival of premature babies and pioneering microsurgical techniques. More recently, the research efforts at the Institute have focussed on exploring the very basis of human development as a route towards understanding the molecular causes of disease. The Children’s Medical Research Institute has led the way in gaining new insights into the mechanisms of cancer, basic studies on the development of the brain, nerve and muscle cells and their function, working towards new gene therapies and detailing the molecular establishment of the blueprint for embryo development.