For 50 years the Leukaemia Foundation has been delivering care, driving research and supporting Australians impacted by blood cancer

This  organisation was started in 1975 by The Holland Park Lions Club in Brisbane and Dr.Trevor Olsen a haematologist,  to provide medical care, patient support, fund research, and educate patients and staff.

Although Amyloidosis is not a blood cancer the Leukaemia Foundation has played an important role in raising awareness about this group of diseases and supporting patients over many years.

In 2004 the then CEO of LFA, Adrian Collins, invited a small group of medical specialists and Pat Neely, a medical social worker who were already working together to raise awareness about amyloidosis across Australia, to discuss how LFA might help.

The decisions from this meeting were:

  • To invite Professor Philip Hawkins, the then deputy director of the BHS funded National Amyloidosis Centre in London, to conduct workshops for doctors and patients and families in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane. These very successful workshops were held in 2005 and helped put amyloidosis on the Australian map. The Australian Amyloidosis Network runs similar workshops biannually.
  • To find an Australian haematologist interested in amyloidosis to conduct an Australian treatment trail for AL amyloidosis.
    Dr Peter Mollee who had recently returned from working with amyloidosis patients in the Queen Elizaeth Hospital Toronto, conducted this first treatment trial( MM8) for AL amyloidosis in Australia and funded by LFA. Pat Neely carried out a side project to gather data on how patients obtained information about their disease at diagnosis. This work underpinned the information in the  LFA’s  booklet Understanding Amyloidosis now in its 10th edition and available today online.

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Professor Mollee is now the medical director of the Queensland Amyloidosis Centre based at the Princes Alexander Hospital in Brisbane and Chair of the Australian Amyloidosis Network Board.

LFA invited Pat to be volunteer coordinator of amyloidosis services across Australia to work with LFA staff and patients and doctors building education and support services. A quarterly LFA amyloidosis news was started and sent to haematologists and cardiologists and patients and families across Australia and overseas. Regular Face to face  amyloidosis support and education meetings meeting were run in each state and patients and families were offered one to one support and education via the phone.
Pat went on to become a founding member of the AAN and patient advocate and now chair the AANs media and communications committee.

There are now a number of charities and organisations in Australia and around the world offering education and support to amyloidosis patient, with of course the Australian Amyloidosis Network, AAN, becoming a Company in 2021.

The AAN continues to work closely with LFA and wishes them a very happy 50th birthday

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