Chair of Rare Voices Australia’s (RVA) Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee, Professor Adam Jaffé, and Heather Renton, Chief Executive Officer of RVA Partner, Syndromes Without a Name (SWAN) Australia, featured in ABC Nightlife’s rare diseases segment on 31 May 2021. Click here to listen to the show.
Young Australians living with rare diseases can face significant social, employment and educational barriers in life.
Many can also experience isolation and exclusion from their peer groups.
But Basit Bahram is trying his best to overcome these challenges.
RVA’s CEO was interviewed by ABC News.
Click here to read the full article.
If you ask her parents, Trisha Sawhney is like any typical 12-year-old girl in so many ways.
“Trisha is a happy-go-lucky child. She has lots of hobbies. She loves TikTok, singing and dancing,” her father Neeraj Sawhney, from Melbourne, says.
“She also loves cooking and baking and wants to start her own YouTube channel to upload her dance and cooking videos.”
RVA’s CEO, Nicole Millis, was interviewed by 9News.com.au.
Click here to read the full article.
A big thank you to everyone who played a role in helping to generate awareness for 2021 Rare Disease Day. Below, we have included a summary of media generated that RVA was involved in securing and/or were featured in.
Sunday Extra – ABC Radio National | Radio
Aired on Sunday (28 February) morning, this segment featured clinical geneticist, Dr Lisa Ewans who is a member of RVA’s Scientific & Medical Advisory Committee, as well as Sean Murray, the CEO and a founding director of RVA Partner, Mito Foundation, and Christine Lowe, President of RVA Partner, Myositis Association of Australia Inc.
Listen to the Sunday Extra segment on the ABC Listen app or your favourite podcast app. We’ve listed the Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts links below.
Apple Podcasts (go to the 2hrs 33 min mark)
(go to the 2hrs 33 min mark)
SBS news | TV and online
Aired on Sunday (28 February), this story featured Monty, an eight-year-old boy living with pontocerebellar hypoplasia. The story also included commentary from RVA’s CEO, Nicole Millis.
You can watch the TV segment that aired on SBS On Demand (available until 7 March). Go to the 29th minute mark on to watch the story.
An online article accompanied the TV story.
2GB (NSW) | Radio
Nicole Millis was interviewed about whole-genome sequencing in a package that aired on Sunday (28 February). Click here to listen to the clip.
This interview was syndicated across 4BC, 2CC, 5AA and 4BC.
Newscorp | Online
This story ran online on 26 February and was widely syndicated across four states. The reporter explores the story of families from three RVA Partner organisations: SCN2A Australia, Rare Find Foundation and ausEE Inc. The article also features Angelina and her family’s story – Angelina was part of the global Rare Disease Day campaign. Nicole Millis provides commentary. Click here to read the article.
The Advocate | Online
Three articles ran in The Advocate ahead of Rare Disease Day:
Damian’s story – Damian is a member of RVA Partner, Myositis Association of Australia Inc.
Angelina’s story – Angelina was part of the global Rare Disease Day campaign.
Tim’s story – Between 12 August 2020 and 28 February 2021 (Rare Disease Day), Tim ran 100km in 200 days to raise awareness for rare diseases. All funds raised were donated to RVA.
Source Kids Magazine | Online
A story will run in Source Kids’ Autumn issue, featuring commentary from Nicole Millis. We will share the article as soon as it’s available.
Imagine your child is showing symptoms that confound doctors.
You see expert after expert, getting test after test.
Perhaps you’re even scoffed at along the way, however, you persevere because your instincts as a parent are screaming at you that something is not right with your child and you know early interventions produce the best outcomes.
Rare Voices Australia’s (RVA) CEO, Nicole Millis, and Deputy Chair and Director, Kane Blackman, were interviewed by The West Australian.
Click here to read the full article.
Rare disease patients are organising like never before, turning up the publicity volume and becoming ever more active in driving cures in the lab and even the boardroom.
As a person living with a rare disease and a professional in healthcare communications, I occasionally have moments of disconnect. Such as when I began this article.
Let me explain. In Thinking Fast and Slow, a mental model proposed by Daniel Kahneman, system 1 thinking is characterised by ‘emotive, instinctive’ thought patterns, while system 2 thinking utilises a deliberate, rational frame of mind. We spend more time in system 1 thinking than most of us care to admit.
Click here to read the full article.
Rare Voices Australia’s CEO, Nicole Millis, was interviewed for SourceKids’ special COVID-19 edition.
Click here to read the article on pages 24 and 25.
Carol Wicking, Gareth Baynam, Kaustuv Bhattacharya (all members of Rare Voices Australia’s Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee) and Nicole Millis wrote this Letter to the Editor that was published in The Medical Journal of Australia.
When Kane Blackman’s son started experiencing severe symptoms of an unknown condition, he was told his child was delayed and would eventually catch up.
It was then suggested his son probably had cerebral palsy.
Finally, he was diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome, a rare genetic disease affecting one in 15,000 Australians. It prevents speech, causes seizures, impacts motor co-ordination and requires a lifetime of care.
Click through to read the full article.
Rare Voices Australia (RVA) attended the Far North Queensland Fun Run in the lead-up to Rare Disease Day 2020 and were interviewed by Channel 7. Click here to watch the segment.
