Speeches
Tuesday, 20 August 2024
Celebration of Women's and Children's Hospital and presentation of 2024 Bloom Research Program Awards
As patron of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation, I am pleased to join you to mark the foundation’s achievements over the past year.
It’s also my pleasure to be here for the presentation of the 2024 Awards for the Bloom Research Program, now in its second year.
The Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation is one of South Australia’s oldest and most highly regarded charities.
Since the 1980s, you have supported the health of South Australian mothers and children by funding the provision of new technologies, updated spaces, family support programs and, of course, medical research.
As Governor it has been my privilege to meet a number of our state’s medical researchers.
They are curious, innovative, and determined to search for breakthroughs that will have impacts here, nationally and across the globe.
Their research can be a long and painstaking journey, but it has the ability to transform lives.
Last year I was pleased to open the inaugural Women’s and Children’s Health Network Research Week, showcasing a wide range of excellent research, much of which benefits from foundation funding.
I congratulate the foundation on recently doubling its investment into health and medical research for our State.
This will enable the Bloom Research Program to increase its research capacity, while also laying a solid foundation on which new ideas can be tested, knowledge gained and practices grow.
I congratulate the five successful research teams who will share in $4 million of funding to pursue their projects for the benefit of a broad cross section of our population, including Aboriginal mothers and children, as well as children living in regional and remote areas.
I look forward to learning more as your research progresses and seeing its practical application in the years to come.
I also congratulate the foundation on its other milestones in the past year.
These include, in July, the foundation celebrating 5 years of the Laklinyeri Beach House, a medically equipped holiday home which gives families with ill children the opportunity to have a break together and make special memories.
They also include the foundation’s Arts in Health program, operating now for over a decade, which supports more than 80,000 patients each year on their health journeys.
I thank the foundation’s board and staff for their vision and commitment as the Principal Charity Partner of the Women’s and Children’s Health Network.
I thank sincerely the supporters with us today for their financial gifts which enable the foundation to support the hospital and health network in such a significant way.
Your generosity plays a vital role in enabling the foundation to pursue its ambitious goals.
I wish the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation every success for the next year, as it continues supporting South Australian mothers, babies and children to live happy, healthy lives.