I am delighted to announce that the Malaria Vaccine Project has raised $470,000 of its $500,000
target to support the critical clinical trials of Professor Michael Good’s promising vaccine
PlasProtect® in a non-endemic country Australia. This is a marvellous effort in less than 2 years
with Rotary doing the heavy lifting having raised nearly $320,000. A BIG thank you to Rotary
districts, clubs and members in Australia and PNG
It is indeed a time for great celebration because with this money supporting the research
program, the clinical trials to test the efficacy of the vaccine have actually commenced with first
participants starting their vaccine injections last week. They will have three injections of the
vaccine followed by the injection of a malaria parasite to assess how well the vaccine works. It is
an exciting time for this project.
I wish I could say that we are all done in our mission to support these non-endemic clinical trials
which of course are pre-requisite to further clinical trials into endemic countries. Sadly this is
not the case! The target of $500,000 was based on the clinical trials being conducted at the Gold
Coast; that is, all 3 cohorts of 12 participants coming from the Gold Coast region. Even with all
the efforts of the Institute for Glycomics and Rotary the search for participants will only yield 1
cohort at the Gold Coast. The remaining two cohorts will have to be organised in Brisbane. This
will require the use of a Brisbane agency Q-Pharm to locate and establish the remaining two
cohorts. Q-Pharm is expensive but it will enable the clinical trials in Brisbane to be completed
on time and the entire set of clinical trials to be finished in June 2019.
The need to establish the majority of the trials in Brisbane and the addition of a further pilot
study requires us to reset our target at $1,000,000. This pilot study of the “off-the-shelf” (cryo)
version of PlasProtect® must be completed before the vaccine can be tested in an endemic
country because it must be able to be produced, stored and shipped during the endemic stage of
the trials. The pilot study will test that the cryo version is safe and does indeed activate the
immune system.
Our goal in this project has not changed—only the money needed. To save the 400,000 annual
deaths from malaria, we must get this promising vaccine through the non-endemic clinical trials
in Australia and prepare it for the endemic clinical trials. We are hopeful at the endemic stage
that the World Health Organization (WHO), a large pharmaceutical, foundations and corporates
will support the vaccine and the opportunity to eradicate malaria. Not to go the extra mile and
save the lives of all those children and pregnant mothers is unthinkable.
Please continue to help us reach this target of $1,000,000. Thanks to your help we are already
HALF-WAY there and we are hoping that governments, corporate bodies and private individuals
can be persuaded to carry a much greater share of the burden. We need Rotarians to raise
another $250,000 and for various reasons we have to complete this task by December 2019.
This is our challenge to you and we know that there is no organization in Australia or the world
with a more established humanitarian record than Rotarians.
1 September 2018

PDG Graham Jones AM

Malaria Vaccine Research Project Chair

 

 

 

Our Malaria Vaccine Project will be a major recipient of the proceeds from this day and we are keen to support the event to help ensure its success and maximise the funds flow to the project.

Les Bulluss is co-ordinating our table(s) so please let him know the number of tickets you require as soon as possible. 

Gold Coast Sun

September 9, 2018 12:00am

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THERE’S more to police work than meets the eye and it’s the behind the scenes efforts shown by individual offices and stations or units which can largely go unnoticed.

To rectify that and to recognise service to the community by the men and women in uniform and the civilians who support them, nominations are now being sought for the annual Police Officer of the Year Awards sponsored by the Rotary Club of Broadbeach and supported by the Queensland Police Service.

One of the key men behind the awards is Rotarian Ray Milton who has been involved with them since their inception 14 years ago.

“We felt that there needed to be someway of thanking officers who had demonstrated acts of community involvement, whether it be support, compassion bravery or dedication to duty and we modelled the Gold Coast awards off a similar set up in South Australia,” Mr Milton said.

“What makes these awards special is that they are public nominations coming directly from those communities who have seen or been recipients of the services provided by officers or stations or unit outside the normal roles of the police.

“We also acknowledge and recognise those civilian support people without whose help the police force would face added pressure.”

The awards have been welcomed by Gold Coast Police Inspector Bruce Kuhn who said the officers and units really appreciated knowing that their efforts outside their usual roles were recognised by the community.

“Because the nominations are from the public, it’s a way of saying thanks for your efforts,” Inspector Kuhn said.

“The gala awards dinner on October 30 is a great way of the police and community coming together and its an evening we look forward to.”

Mr Milton said the awards were open to all areas of the Gold Coast and all police officers, stations and units.

There were three categories:

Police Officer of the Year

Station/Unit of the Year

Civilian Support Person of the Year.

Nominations will close on September 22 with finalists being put forward to a QPS panel for the final judgment.

Nomination forms can be obtained online at www.broadbeachrotary.org or by emailing raymilton@bigpond.com

Forms can be sent to Police Officer of the Year, c/Rotary Club of Broadbeach, P. O. Box 5220, Q Super Centre, Mermaid Waters, 4218.

— BOB ANTHONY