NSW Premier in surf-off to Wipeout Dementia
New South Wales premier Mike Baird joined senior executives from corporate Australia on Saturday for a surf-off as part of Wipeout Dementia.
From left to right: CHeBA’s Heidi Mitchell, Premier Mike Baird, Richard Grellman AM and Professor Henry Brodaty AO.
The surf event raised $80,000 for dementia research and to change the future of dementia incidence.
Wipeout Dementia is a strength-for-surfing campaign where senior executives from corporate Australia compete in a four week event, ending with a surf-off tournament.
The campaign supports The Dementia Momentum, a Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) initiative at the University of News South Wales (UNSW).
The first event, in May 2015, was hugely successful and involved a surfing appearance from then Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Following his show of support for the first Wipeout Dementia in May, NSW Premier Mike Baird agreed to participate in Saturday’s surf-off.
“With a rapidly expanding ageing population, dementia is set to bring an enormous challenge to health, aged care and social policy. I fully support Richard Grellman in his role with CHeBA to drive positive change for the future of all Australians,” Premier Mike Baird says.
Spokesman for The Dementia Momentum, Richard Grellman AM says: “Our participants have been great, many of them making donations personally and all of them drawing on their extensive professional networks.”
The fundraising event is in honour of Mr Grellman’s wife Suellen, who has advanced young onset Alzheimer’s disease and now requires full time care and attention.
“We need help to get resources directed to researching prevention, diagnosis and treatment and corporate Australia is the best hope we have for getting the volume of funds we need quickly, so we can start seeing results,” according to Mr Grellman.
CHeBA Co-Directors, Professors Perminder Sachdev and Henry Brodaty say they were encouraged by the philanthropic support received from the Australian business community to date.
“Funding support is critical for the research breakthroughs needed to tackle dementia,” Professor Sachdev says.
“Wipeout Dementia is also a fantastic opportunity to increase awareness about how physical activity can help brain health,” he says.
It is estimated that by improving physical activity by just 5 percent, as many as 100,000 fewer Australians would develop dementia by 2050.
Recent analysis showed that physically inactive individuals had an 80% increased risk of dementia.
By contrast, physical exercise has positive and protective effects on brain function, not only reducing risk factors but increasing neuroplasticity.
