State Update - WA

Thalassaemia Association of Western Australia

*FUND RAISING The Calabrese Club inc held a quiz night on Friday May 7th 2004, Which we are helping to get prizes for and to also get as many people as we can to come along and form tables. The Calabrese Club has been so kind to donate part of the proceeds to the Thalassaemia Association of WA. Which is a great help considering we do not have to organize and outlay much towards the night. We are also using the Entertainment Books as another form of fund raising for this year. It's a fairly easy way to raise money as most people know about these books and are waiting for them to come out again.

*MRI's Tim St Pierre is still conducting research with MRI's to test amounts of iron in the liver without the need of a liver biopsy. A few patients in Perth have just volunteered to have another MRI scan on their liver as part of the ongoing research and study. Tim is also looking alot further into testing amounts of iron in the heart using the MRI machine. There is alot of this happening in Adelaide for any patients who are interested to participate in this form of research. Teresa volunteered to have her heart and liver scanned in Adelaide with the help of our association and Tim St Pierre's research group.

*CONFERENCE In the second week of August 2004, there will be a conference on Genetics and Population Health. The big focus will be Thalassaemia because of its growing impact on individuals, families and communities, and on the national and community health resources. This conference should be a big help towards providing awareness to the public and health professionals in Perth. Due to this conference being held in Perth, Perth will host the AGM for the ATA on Friday August 6th.

*NEEDLES I dont know if this news is too old as it happened early last year. We pushed one of our big hospitals (Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital)to provide needles for all our Thal patients attending that hospital. This was done with a letter that we received from (I think it was Rosa in Sydney) Sydney to give to the hospital's CEO. So now patients do not have to pay for their needles.

Josie Stockden ATA-WA Delegate