Help Us Fund Lifesaving Medical Research
Your gift will help The Baird Institute with its research into novel blood vessel replacements. Without your help, people like Ahmad wouldn’t have a second chance.
Can we count on your support?
“My dad could have died early like my grandpa. I or any of my brothers could have as well. But we haven't. And it is all because of research made possible by the people at The Baird Institute.”
We all have a first memory from our childhood. Often, they are of special places, special events, or special people. Most often, they’re happy memories.
I have one as well. But it is a little bit different…
I was seven years old, and things in my house weren’t quite right. I could feel it. Pain and anxiety filled the air. It seemed to be everywhere. My extended family and all our friends were at the house around the clock.
But there was one person who wasn’t… My dad!
While my dad eventually did come home, it took him a while to get back to his old self. A few months in fact.
And this was when our family “ritual” began. Each year, like clockwork, my parents would take me and two of my brothers to Westmead Children’s Hospital, where we went through a battery of tests.
I didn’t understand it all then, but I do now.
As I grew older, I started asking questions about those trips. Memories of what happened to my dad came sharply into focus, and I had an anxious feeling that I was destined to go through the same thing.
It all started making sense. My grandpa died in Lebanon when he was 30 years old. We didn’t know why at the time. We know now.
We all have something called Marfan syndrome. It’s a genetic disorder affecting the body’s connective tissue and arteries, leading to the development of aneurysms. These silent and insidious bulges along the arterial walls bear no symptoms, yet they hold a grim potential: if they grow too large and burst, it can lead to sudden and unexpected death—a fate my father nearly met.
Your gift will help us raise the $156,000 needed to fund our cutting-edge research into novel degradable blood vessel replacements.
This research leverages expensive spatial transcriptomics technology to revolutionize treatments for patients with damaged blood vessels who are facing heart surgery.
Our work is made possible by the support of compassionate individuals like you, many of whom are current or former patients of the cardiothoracic surgeons at RPA. Your partnership is crucial to our mission of fostering research and applying science to enhance outcomes for patients undergoing heart or lung surgery.
Will you partner with us in this important endeavour? Your support will make a significant impact on the lives of many. Thank you for considering this opportunity to join us in making a difference.
Professor Paul Bannon PhD MB BS FRACS
Chair, The Baird Institute
