David Prast Memorial Chair in Spinal Cord Injuries Research
Help us make the The David Prast Chair at Macquarie a reality
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December 2011
SpinalCure Australia (SCA) and Spinal Cord Injuries Australia (SCIA) have joined forces to complete one of David Prast’s biggest ever projects, the David Prast Memorial Chair in Spinal Cord Injuries Research at The Australian Advanced School of Medicine at Macquarie and we need your support.
The Chair will contribute to major innovations in both early intervention and longer term care; build capacity for research into treatments for spinal cord injury; attract significant overseas research talent to Australia and make significant discoveries to contribute to improvement in both early intervention and longer term care for those with spinal cord injuries. All of which David was incredibly passionate about.
This is a huge multimillion dollar fundraising undertaking, however it is something that the directors of both SCA and SCIA and The Australian School of Advanced Medicine are determined to achieve to uphold David's legacy of changing the face of spinal injury for future generations.
We are pleased to announce that Slater & Gordon have already pledged the first $50,000.
The Chair is something that David personally had been working on for the last 3 years and he was very passionate about. Michelle is strongly of the view that this had become his key priority and he would want us to get behind this above all else. In the very week of his death we were discussing whether SpinalCure and Spinal Cord Injuries Australia (SCIA) could get together to make this a priority. As a director of both David was ‘pulling out all stops’ to absolutely make this happen.
In David's view Macquarie has some unique offerings that merits support, they include:
- The School of Advanced Medicine (ASAM) at Macquarie University, Sydney, houses some of Australia's leading Neurological Clinical and Research expertise.
- A commitment to developing research and clinical expertise in SCI at a single private healthcare facility.
- The advantage of being financially resourced to maximise levels of healthcare.
- Highest levels of diagnostic tools presently available in Australia.
- Demonstrated financial commitment to a Clinical SCI Research Chair.
He also believed that the setting up of the first private hospital to embrace SCI would help alleviate an overburdened public hospital system precisely because no other private healthcare provider has embraced SCI. "Supporting Macquarie to embrace SCI would help to alleviate this constraint," he said.
For more information
If you’d like to discuss this further please call SCA’s Joanna Knott (0413 995992) or Duncan Wallace (0459 359180) or SCIA’s Leila Mitchell (0421 055990).
Joanna@spinalcure.org.au; duncan@spinalcure.org.au; lmitchell@scia.org.au
SCA and SCIA are both not-for-profits focusing on spinal cord injuries. David was a board director of both organisations.