Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fisher businessman Mark Forbes has a bold vision: to create, build and operate Australia's first specialist residential facility for the treatment of eating disorders, right in my electorate of Fisher. Mark's passion has led him not only to dream up the concept but to find a block of land and commit to buying it. But passion can only get you so far. With settlement fast approaching, Mark still needed funds to complete the sale and get EndED House past this critical hurdle. On Monday, the project hung in the balance, but, as they have so often done before in the service of our community, local philanthropists Roy and Nola Thompson stepped up and gave Mark a $1 million cheque for EndED House. As with their $10 million donation to the Thompson Institute, Roy and Nola have used the legacy of their business success to help the vulnerable and to make the coast a leader in another nationally important field—that is, mental health research.

I want to thank Roy and Nola and tell them that I hope soon to reinforce their generosity with support from the federal government. I'm doing all I can to work with the Minister for Health and the state government to find ways that we can supply EndED with the funding it needs to get EndED House out of the ground so that it can treat young Australians with eating disorders as soon as possible.