Centenary Institute Gala Dinner Dazzles!

The Centenary Institute has raised nearly $260,000 to advance medical research in Australia, hosting a successful Foundation Dinner at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, paying tribute and recognising the outstanding achievements of our expert researchers who strive to better understand and find cures for cancer, inflammation and cardiovascular diseases. We are extremely pleased to have the Bank of Queensland as our Principal Supporting Partner for a third consecutive year and celebrate with 280 of our key supporters (comprising of allied health professionals, government, corporate organisations and high net worth individuals) how the Institute is achieving life-saving research which will ultimately improve human health and ensure our nation’s health and prosperity.

We had the great pleasure of having the New South Wales Premier, The Hon Gladys Berejiklian, MP, as our Guest of Honour, Professor the Hon. Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO as our special guest, and several other dignitaries in attendance, such as the Hon. Tanya Plibersek, MP, the Hon. Kristina Keneally, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Michael Spence, and leaders from our sister institutes (heart Research Institute and the Woolcock Institute). Our guests were entertained by a wonderful variety of musicians, including Jonathan Zwartz, Opera Australia and Darren Percival with Sandra Sully as our warm and wonderful MC for the night.

This year was more significant than ever as one of Centenary’s Foundation Committee Members, Andrew White, launched our ambitious new initiative, One in a Million – an exclusive club of generous supporters pledging to commit $1,000 dollars each, towards medical research undertaken at Centenary. We aim to reach a target of 1,000 new, passionate and committed individuals whose combined investment and shared belief will generate $1 million dollars a year directly into medical research projects at the Centenary Institute.

During these challenging times for medical research in Australia, due to a significant decrease in government funding, the generosity of our donors means more to us than ever, which is why we consider our One in a Million Club donors, as members of the Centenary Family. A cohort that is dedicated and passionately committed to research can be one of the most powerful tools Australia has to improve and ensure the health of our communities. It is this group’s collective efforts that can create positive change and tangible outcomes that are set to significantly improve the lives of individuals and the community, as a whole.

To show our appreciation to One in a Million Club members, we are providing special events throughout 2018, inviting them to meet with our scientists, opportunities to attend exclusive seminars and social events to say thank you for their contribution towards medical research breakthroughs of the future.

As well as launching our new campaign, we celebrated the great achievements of our scientists over the past year, each of them working hard to understand disease and find cures in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular disease and inflammation.

Please click on the images below to view our photo gallery of the evening:

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