By Linda Nash, Inner Wheel Club of Pakenham
The much anticipated walk for a cause, “Sean’s Two For Ten”, was conducted by the Inner Wheel Club of Pakenham on the morning of Sunday 28 February at Rotary Park, Pakenham.
The fundraising project was to raise money for the continuing support of cord blood research. The local venture was spearheaded by Sue Blenkhorn, the Inner Wheel District coordinator for cord blood research.
Nearly 50 Inner Wheel members from Pakenham and Berwick and other supportive friends walked two kilometres on Sunday morning and donated $10 each to the cause. Other people sent in donations but were unable to walk.
In all, the Pakenham Club is now able to contribute over $1400 to cord blood research.
The members of the Inner Wheel Club of Pakenham who walked wore white tops and had a red sash over the top to symbolise cord blood research.
A breakfast was provided to the walkers afterwards, with members of the Rotary Club of Pakenham and Koo Wee Rup Lion’s Club doing the cooking.
One of the ambassadors for Sean’s Two For Ten, renowned local children’s author, Alison Lester, was present at the walk. It was a pleasure to have Alison present and her support has been greatly appreciated.
Financially supporting cord blood research is a National Project of Inner Wheel. Over 20 years more than $3m has been raised and used to provide grants to researchers who are working in this area. Research using cord blood stem cells is currently being conducted on babies born pre-term and on those with conditions which lead to cerebral palsy at the Hudson Research Centre in Clayton.
Stem cells from the umbilical cord of a new born baby are used to save the lives of other babies and children. This is a miracle of recycling as otherwise the umbilical cords are usually discarded.
An Australian boy, Sean, is an example of how life changing stem cells can be. Sean was born without the ability to develop an immune system. At about 13 months of age he was given a stem cell transplant from a donated umbilical cord from a baby girl in America. Sean is now a healthy 10-year-old with a normal immune system.
