Lions Australia Spinal Cord Fellowship
Introduction
The purpose of the Fellowship is to support StepAhead Australia (formerly the Spinal Cord Society Australia) in funding Australian scientists or clinicians to study the latest techniques that are being researched for the repair of spinal cord injury both within Australia and the USA.
The intent being that the knowledge and experience gained will be made available to the Australian public.
The funding will subsidise salaries and expenses including appropriate equipment deemed necessary to assist the research of the nominated Fellowship holders.
Lions Partnership
In 1999 the President of what is now StepAhead Australia (Dr George Owen), spoke at a local Lions Club meeting looking merely for financial support for his organisation.
He spoke of the disturbing statistics that put 1 Australian a day into a wheelchair suffering from either paraplegia or quadriplegia.
Most of these unfortunate people are young and suffer their injuries from swimming hole accidents, sporting injuries and car crashes.
Their injuries currently confine them to a life of pain and constant dependence on others to allow them to enjoy the basics of life … in most Third World countries this type of injury usually results in death.
Lions were so impressed by the goals of StepAhead - "to get the paralysed to walk again" - that they took on the task of financially supporting the organisation. Currently the "Spinal Cord Fellowship" is a Category B project of Lions Australia.
StepAhead is a research organisation dedicated to finding a cure for chronic spinal cord injury using the patient's own cells.
StepAhead has entered into a partnership with the University of Melbourne and Melbourne's St. Vincent's Hospital to set up a dedicated spinal cord research laboratory.
Lions Spinal Cord Fellowship supports the research being conducted by StepAhead Australia aimed at finding a cure for chronic spinal cord injury.
More information on the progress of the research can be found at www.stepahead.org.au
For Further Information
See www.lascf.org.au
ALL general enquiries:
info@lascf.org.au
Other assistance:
Lion Geoff Neal
District V3 Spinal Cord Chairman and Club Liaison
Phone (03) 5174 9354
help@lascf.org.au
Project Chairman, Lions Club of Wellington-Latrobe Inc. (managing club)
Lion Bev Goddard
Phone (03) 5192 4370
ALL Correspondence to:
Spinal Cord Fellowship
Post Office,
Toongabbie, Vic. 3856
Additional Resources
StepAhead Australia Inc
Community Relations and Scientific Development
info@stepahead.org.au
Win Tyquin Award
Every donation of $500 or more qualifies a Lions club for a Win Tyquin Award. A donation of $1,000 entitles the club to 2 awards, and so on. An Application form is available for download here.