It takes resilience to keep going forward when the road ahead is steep, undulating or unknown. I attended a family funeral last week for a kind and wise elder of our extended family and in hearing the eulogy of this lovely lady’s life it stuck with me that it was her resilience that got her through. She didn’t always have the easy path to travel, she quite amazingly survived a life-threatening health condition and through persistence she continued on. I came away from the funeral inspired to keep up my task of making a difference for people suffering with hydrocephalus.

Its been a few weeks, since I last posted, I have been waiting for announcements on who will be the candidates in our local area for the federal election as I have been constructing letters from myself and also templates that you will be able to download and send yourself. If you do want to join me in writing, please feel free to use the templates to write to your local federal and state members for parliament. Make sure you update the template to be a reflection of your own details and/or opinions on hydrocephalus. If/when you receive a response please let me know as it is a great achievement to have our message shared by as many supporters as possible. Most candidates have emails in place so you don’t have to “post a letter” anymore just shoot them an email. All details to do this will be at the end of this post.

How is advocating to the government about hydrocephalus and the shunt registry helping Miss K?

Well the more people who say “hey you should know about this and be doing something to help” to our government representatives, will raise the volume of our voice and open the ears of our government to see the need of the thousands of Aussies currently dealing with Hydrocephalus. Currently it feels like our government doesn’t believe hydrocephalus to be a problem. Apart from the initial seed funding in 2014 for the registry no additional funds have been committed to research into this condition. So in the event that Miss K needs more assistance with her condition in the future then the best option will be available to make her quality of life better or even save her life.

In the recent newsletter from the Hydrocephalus Support Association they included an excerpt from the newsletter of the American Hydrocephalus Association .

In December, Congress passed a bill to fund government agencies throughout 2016, and in doing so, took huge steps to support the hydrocephalus community. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is responsible for conducting life-saving research into conditions like hydrocephalus, saw a $2 billion increase in funding, bringing their total to $32 billion. That’s the largest funding increase the agency has seen in 12 years! As a result, NIH now has the resources it needs to better support scientists working on life-changing hydrocephalus research. Thanks to the hard work of advocates in the hydrocephalus community, Congress is clearly hearing what we have to say and paying attention.

We criticise the Americans for their health care but you have to give it to them when they spend money on research. Over the last few years they have been listening to the American Hydrocephalus Community and their advocacy for more funding. We don’t need $32 billion dollars but we do need the Australian Government to take the condition seriously and fund health research projects that will directly save Australians lives and save the Federal and State health systems money.

Download the Letter Templates for writing to your local candidates. 

Writing to the current Local Federal Member for Parliament in your electorate. 
Writing to a local candidate in the federal election who is campaigning for the federal seat
Writing to your local state member for parliament

TO find out who is your local member and candidates this website has them all listed by electorate with links to their website where you can usually find their email address.

If your a local, living in the northern beaches the emails for the federals seats of Mackellar and Warringah are linked below as well as all the local State Members of Parliament.

Federal Contacts for Mackellar

The Hon. Bronwyn Bishop MP
Bronwyn.Bishop.MP@aph.gov.au

Liberal Candidate – Jason Falinski
mackellar@nswliberal.org.au

Greens Candidate – Mike Hall
mike@mikehall.net.au

ALP Candidate – Rhonda Funnell
Rhonda.Funnell@nswlabor.org.au

Federal Contacts for Warringah

The Hon. Tony Abbott MP
http://tonyabbott.com.au/contact/

Greens Candidate – Clara Williams Roldan
https://www.facebook.com/Clara4Warringah/timeline

ALP Candidate – Andrew Woodward
inbox@warringahlabor.com

NXT Candidate – Marie Rowland
marie.rowland@nxt.org.au

State Government Contacts

The Hon. Brad Hazzard MP
Member for Wakehurst
wakehurst@parliament.nsw.gov.au

The Hon. Rob Stokes MP
Member for Pittwater
pittwater@parliament.nsw.gov.au

The Hon. Jonathan O’Dea
Member for Davidson
davidson@parliament.nsw.gov.au

The Hon. Mike Baird MP
Member for Manly and Premier of NSW
manly@parliament.nsw.gov.au