Gerringong Town Hall was a fitting venue on Saturday 2 March for the celebration of 65 years of continuous fundraising for Children’s Medical Research Institute Gerringong Committee. It was here that the first meeting of the Gerringong Committee took place, under the leadership of first President Dorothy Bailey, on 23 March 1959.

Life Members, Mena Sharpe and Joyce Sharpe, were at that meeting and are still active members today. Other Life Members include past President (1984-2009) Margaret Weir OAM, Rhonda Bailey, Kate Quinn, Jenny Bolden, Dawn Miller and Edith Burgess.

CMRI members ( from left) Willi Harley and Robyn Jeffrey

Guest speakers, Professor Roger Reddel, Director of CMRI and Jennifer Philps, Community Relations Manager, congratulated the Gerringong Committee on reaching this milestone. President Lucy Hill outlined the history of the Committee and its success over these 65 years in donating $2,262,000 to medical research.

Professor Reddel focused on the research of scientists at the labs at Westmead. Cancer and genetic disease make up the majority (85 per cent) of the work done. These are the areas of greatest unmet need. Neurobiology and Embryology make up the rest. When CMRI scientists first began working on gene therapy under the guidance of the late Professor Peter Rowe, most of his peers felt gene therapy was science fiction. Today, thanks to the past 30 years of the Jeans for Genes National Campaign, Gene Therapy is changing lives for the better.

Cancer research centres around the ProCan research unit based at Westmead and has yielded better diagnosis of childhood cancers and because of its huge database of cancer tumour samples, targeted treatment of different cancers. It’s a global effort and CMRI is leading the world.

CMRI member Susan Pearson and Dr Russel Pearson

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a devastating disease that causes big nerves to die off and the ability to use large muscles is lost. Some children die before age two, others may be in a wheelchair for years. Gene therapy most commonly involves replacing or repairing a faulty gene. The most efficient delivery systems are based on viruses and the current SMA Gene Therapy uses a harmless virus named AAV. One injection can give a child a normal life.

During question time at the conclusion of Professor Reddel’s speech, the audience heard, quite unexpectedly, from Adam Sharpe who revealed that his daughter, Alessia, had been diagnosed at birth with SMA and received gene therapy treatment that reversed the disease. Alessia has a very active, happy, normal life. Adam and his wife, Adriana, expressed their appreciation to Professor Reddel who described the moment as “spine tingling”. The audience agreed and all were delighted to be part of this wonderful revelation.

CMRI Gerringong Committee is committed to continued fundraising knowing that 82 cents in every dollar goes directly to research, 1 in 20 kids face a birth defect or genetic disease, 160,000 children worldwide are diagnosed with cancer.

From left Diane Murray, Robyn Gerard and Wendy Reilly enjoyed the afternoon

New members are always welcome. Next meeting is Monday 8 April at Gerringong Town Hall 7pm. Email [email protected] and go to www.jeansforgenes.org.au



 Kate Quinn, Joyce Sharpe and Margaret Weir OAM . Standing Rhonda Bailey