David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with Mary Kranitis, the founder of the Juvenile Arthritis Fundraiser organisation. Mary and her husband, John, founded the organisation in 2007 to raise funds to search for a cure for juvenile arthritis. Mary and John's son George suffers from the disease.

Juvenile arthritis affects about one in 1,000 children and is not as well understood by the medical profession as arthritis in adults. The family's success in fundraising has been extraordinary. Since 2007, Mary and her team have raised over $700,000 to fund research into juvenile arthritis. Funds raised by the organisation have been used to open the first ever Australian research laboratory for juvenile arthritis at the University of New South Wales. Under the leadership of Professor Denis Wakefield, Associate Dean (Research) and Director of Medical Research, much progress has been made in trying to identify a cure for the disease. Research is conducted in Sydney, with the team also collaborating with colleagues in Germany. There is much more to do but progress has been encouraging. For her remarkable work, Mary Kranitis was named Hurstville Citizen of the Year at a ceremony I attended at Conca D'Oro, Riverwood, on January 22. This was an extremely well-deserved honour.

One of the great privileges of being a member of parliament is to meet with community leaders doing great work in our community. Mary is a tremendous example of such leadership and I look forward to assisting her in her work of finding a cure for juvenile arthritis.