Thursday, 12 September 2024

 Brad BATTIN (Berwick) (10:16): Today I would like to make Sarah Kelly famous, not because she is a mum, a daughter or a wife but because she is currently living with stage 3 brain cancer and she knows the outcome from this cancer is probably not great. She is a fantastic lady who came into my office and went through the statistics of brain cancer that I was not aware of – that brain cancer kills more people under 40 than any other cancer, that survival rates have not changed in 30 years and 80 per cent of people still die from it and that brain cancer kills more kids in Australia than any other disease.

She is an amazing person who came in and started raising money. She wanted to raise $5000 for the Brain Cancer Centre. We went in and met up with Misty Jenkins and spoke with them about the current work they are doing in heading towards human trials that could genuinely make a difference when it comes to people living with brain cancer here in Victoria. In that work we are at nearly $30,000, which means there are five more experiments that the Brain Cancer Centre can do. But if we can get up to $45,000 – and I ask if anyone in here would like to put in – it means we can put a postgraduate on for 12 months, and that will make a big difference. The little bit that I could do, as well as raising money, was work with Sarah. I said that if we raised more than $5000 – obviously we are at nearly $30,000 – I would get a tattoo in honour of all people who have died or who are living with brain cancer here in our state, designed by someone who donated. I want to thank them for their donations, and on Tuesday the 17th, if anyone wants to join me, I will be at Skin Architecture in Berwick getting that tattoo designed by one of our local members.