NOT JUST ANOTHER CANCER CHARITY

Brain cancer kills more children and young adults under forty in Australia than any other disease – an unacceptable statistic.

It is unfathomable to imagine the pain of losing a child, however, this was the reality of a Townsville family who lost their daughter to brain cancer at the age of nine, forever young. To honour a promise to her, her father founded The Cure Starts Now Australia. 

Together with several founding Board directors and the commitment of a group of prominent local business people, The Cure Starts Now Australia was established in Townsville in 2010.

The foundation has clear line of focus - to fund research projects and trials into childhood brain cancer and advocate for better outcomes.

From humble beginnings, The Cure Starts Now Australia has grown in both awareness and advocacy. Governed by a board of seven directors, and managed by the CEO, the foundation has attracted the support of prominent ambassadors, partners and national sponsors who are invested in the cause, and operates with an annual calendar of events and opportunities for fundraising to support Australian childhood brain cancer research.

Since 2010, through a dedicated program of advocacy, collaborative partnerships and fundraising events, The Cure Starts Now Australia has funded significant and innovative research grants throughout Australia.

Collaboration

Research grants are selected by our Medical Advisory Council which is an international panel of medical and scientific experts who aim to ensure transparency, improve research collaboration, and eliminate duplication in the pursuit of the cure.

We support and work with researchers and scientists in labs and clinics throughout Australia who work with a shared ethos that together they will
find a cure.

A Shared Ethos

The Cure Starts Now Australia is a widely recognised and trusted foundation which works in collaboration with a range of research institutes and advocacy organisations with a shared vision of funding research and trials.

The foundation is supported by a group of collaborative members who are Australian-based not-for-profits working to raise funds for brain cancer research under their individual banners.  Funding raised by our partners goes towards our overall contribution to funding the best research projects on the table.

Every dollar donated, every ticket purchased, every partner, sponsor and stakeholder who supports The Cure Starts Now Australia makes a considered investment in helping us to find the cure for childhood brain cancer and, in doing so, change the unacceptable statistic.

We thank you for your incredible support and for sharing in our vision of finding the cure for childhood brain cancer.

The Organisation

The Cure Starts Now represents something truly different.  For us it’s not about fighting just one cancer, but the elimination of cancer as a whole.  We believe as the experts do; that in order to truly cure cancer you have to focus on those cancers that are immune to conventional treatments, those cancers for which there are no treatments, those cancers that affect children and those cancers that are the biggest bullies.  We call this the “holistic cure” and its invention isn’t new.  As a matter of fact, the “holistic cure” strategy dates back to the early 1900’s when we made bold advances in cancer research, leading to the invention of surgical efforts, radiation and finally chemotherapy.  But then we stopped, content to focus on treatments rather than cures, deciding to prioritize our resources on those cancers that affected the most people rather than those that we could learn the most from.  The Cure Starts Now is not just another cancer charity, but the only cancer charity dedicated to the “holistic cure” – curing cancer, one child at a time.

How we’re helping the fight against brain cancer

Paediatric brain cancer may be our most important battle in the war against cancer.  Experts worldwide believe that the strategies we discover fighting pediatric brain cancers like DIPG will change the way we fight all cancers.  Through a worldwide collaborative effort we’re not only bringing attention to DIPG and other brain cancers, but we’re also identifying talents that deliver treatments at a pace unparalleled in the research community at a value that every donor can appreciate.  Never satisfied to wait for the next great research project, The Cure Starts Now (Australia) and our partners seek to create brand new collaborations and protocols that were previously thought to be too ambitious and impossible.

Research Strategy

We focus on curing cancer with four separate priorities:  

1. Information – The collection of registry data, complete with genomic and demographic details on the cancers we fight.
2. Delivery – The invention of revolutionary methods to deliver treatments directly to the tumor, limiting ancillary side effects.
3. Translational – The strategic creation of new treatments and new drugs specifically engineered to fight cancer.
4. Clinical – The adaptation of existing treatments to help fight cancers in patients today.