While we all know Lennon-McCartney are the original scribes of the song, the 1968 cover by Joe Cocker at Woodstock (click the link for the you tube video) is my all-time favourite version. I think I first became familiar with it as a youngster watching The Wonder Years. So yes the track is the music currently playing in my head at the moment, Don’t worry I won’t be chanting out loud anytime soon as I can pretty much guarantee it will be out of tune and you may possibly get up and walk out on me!

I recently attended the Fight on the Beaches Christmas in July charity ball which raises an amazing amount of money on the Northern Beaches for Cancer Research. I was inspired and in awe of the women that work so tirelessly for this cause. I am still trying to work out when they managed to have any sleep over the last 12 months, it was extraordinary effort they put together for the night. Which reminds me, deadline day is drawing closer and the organisation of the event is something I deal with in my head at least daily. I am extremely lucky to have friends that feel as passionately as I do about helping and have sourced from their own network some great options for the silent auction and event.

We are still accepting items for this so if you know a business or product that would be happy to donate send them a link to the website and shoot me an email and I will happily smother them with gratitude, and work out the details.

So if you are not aware of what is on offer for the silent auction we have a list of companies that are supporting us on THE HELP page of this website.  Please check it out and please support them when you can, without their generosity this would not be possible.

So the last time I posted I was off to see my local State member for Parliament, The Hon. Brad Hazzard MP. It was a quick meet up and I got some strategies from him on how best to approach state government on the issue of the Australian Shunt Registry for funding. While we believe it should be funded by the Commonwealth sometimes you just need to get things done. I will be taking his advice and working with the Hydrocephalus Support Association on this in the coming weeks.

The Hydrocephalus Support Association has also become a larger part of my life with me directing some my love job hours in helping to design a new format for their quarterly newsletter. The articles are coming together and we have a fresh new look for all the members coming out really soon. I am also lucky to have the support of Robyn Campey the vice president of the association attending our event in August.

The Neurosurgical Society of Australasia, the beneficiary of our event, has also been working hard on the Shunt registry project with new ethics administration approved at the Sydney Childrens’ Hospital Network, this is a giant leap towards the commencement of data collection from patients. They have also recently received fundraising efforts from families just like ours and this has enabled them to appoint a project manager for the shunt registry.