Appeals

Each year during September and October, Lions Medical Research Foundation stages its Annual Appeal, SPRING FOR RESEARCH, allowing us to reach out to our many and varied supporters.

Now in its 5th year, the SPRING FOR RESEARCH Annual Appeal is focused on raising funds in support of our diabetes researcher, Dr Olivia Holland. As Dr Holland so aptly says,

I dream of a world where diabetes is under control, and where the impact of this major public health issue has been drastically reduced.

My name is Dr Olivia Holland, the 2019 recipient of the Lions Medical Research Foundation Fellowship, and with support of the LMRF I study diabetes.

Where can I donate?

Click to DONATE via form

The World Health Organisation estimates that 422 million adults had diabetes in 2014, and these numbers continue to rise. Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that occurs during pregnancy. In Australia, gestational diabetes makes up over a quarter of insulin treated diabetes cases, equating to over 100 women registered with gestational diabetes each day.

The consequences of gestational diabetes don’t end with pregnancy. Thirty percent of children born from a gestational diabetic pregnancy will develop type 2 diabetes later in life, and one in two women who had gestational diabetes will also develop type 2 diabetes within five to ten years.

I hope to better understand gestational diabetes, and so to make a positive impact on women and their children who might otherwise be our future diabetics. I hope that by helping during pregnancy we can prevent the damage before it happens.

The Lions are committed to funding research that will impact the health of Australians and people around the world, with diabetes a central Area of Giving of Lions Clubs International.

Medical research can improve many lives, and your support can help in kick starting the work of the next generation of researchers.

I invite you to help fund emerging researchers like myself, who over the coming years aim to make a difference to important health issues.

Thank you, we couldn’t do it without you.

Yours sincerely,

Olivia