Aspire

Thank you so much to Northern Territory General Practice Education for facilitating the shipment of the donated rugby gear so that it can reach our friends in Jabiru. I wrote a short piece for their newsletter to describe the inspiration and story behind our wonderful team's work.

http://ntgpe.org/news/736

Happy New Year! We're very excited to have started 2015 by shipping rugby gear to an Indigenous Community in the Northern Territory. Thank you to our wonderful team who worked tirelessly to pick up the donated equipment from schools around Sydney. Thank you in particular to the Sydney Grammar School and Pymble Ladies College for your generous donations.

We'd like to take the opportunity to appreciate the amazing work of Community Services Director, Hari Caulfield. Hari brought his years of experience in high-end hospitality to train our high-school student volunteers to be absolutely amazing waiters in a matter of hours. Hari's passion for community service and teaching is absolutely inspiring.

We thank our wonderful team of volunteers for supporting Vision Australia and Sight 20/20 by donating their time and effort at tonight's Taste of Blindness Dinner. For those unaware, attendees of the dinner wore blindfolds and ate a 3-course meal to gain a sense of empathy for those who are visually impaired. Aspire Mentoring was honoured to help run an absolutely wonderful evening.

A fascinating article in the New England Journal of Medicine describing one of the first cases of Ebola observed in a health care worker that had been providing aid to the people of Sierra Leone.

The health care workers that are risking their lives to stop the spread of this virus are truly heroic.

Please let us know if you have any questions regarding the content of this article.

We have translated some of the medical terminology from the article below:

Myalgia- muscle ache

Maculopaular rash- a rash with flattened and raised segments

Blood pressure < 90/ 60 - A normal blood pressure is 120/ 80, any blood pressure < 90/60 is considered a serious medical emergency

Intra-venous fluids - fluids delivered in an attempt to raise the blood pressure

Paracetamol- commonly known as Panadol, a drug that helps to reduce pain and temperature (fever)

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1412662?query=featured_ebola

The First Case of Ebola Virus Disease Acquired outside Africa — NEJM Correspondence from The New England Journal of Medicine — The First Case of Ebola Virus Disease Acquired outside Africa

Had an absolutely wonderful day connecting Health Professionals with the girls at Liverpool Girls High School. We are hoping this is the beginning of a long enduring partnership!

Aspire Mentoring is very excited to support the "Lions Recycle for Sight Australia" program through the collection of spectacles, sunglasses and frames. We will be using our network of volunteers to distribute collection boxes at schools and local optometrists around Sydney. If you are interested in taking responsibility for a box, please let us know as soon as possible. The more boxes we are able to place in the community, the more glasses we can donate to individuals in developing countries with a significant burden of visual impairment but lack of access to appropriate eye care and resources.

An interesting case highlighting how our health care system handles geographical barriers. Careflight is an amazing charity that uses helicopters, aeroplanes and medi-jets to bring a hospital level of care to over 5, 000 critically ill and injured patients a year.

http://careflight.org

"Two injured occupants were flown to hospital in Darwin last night following a fatal car crash near Jabiru in Kakadu National Park.

Police said the driver was killed when the vehicle crashed about 20 km south of Jabiru late this afternoon.

Staff from Jabiru Health Clinic rushed to the crash to treat three injured occupants.

The injured were quickly taken in a clinic ambulance to the Jabiru airstrip to meet a CareFlight plane which landed to allow the flight doctor and nurse to work with clinic staff to asses the injuries.

After stabilisation CareFlight flew two of the injured to Royal Darwin Hospital while the third occupant, a man, was treated at the clinic for minor injuries.

A 21-year-old man suffering leg injuries and a 16-year-old girl suffering arm injuries were flown under treatment by the CareFlight team to Darwin where they remained in a stable condition on arrival at the hospital at 7.30 pm"

Had a fantastic chat with the boys from Sydney Grammar School today!

Thank you so much to James Ruse Agricultural High School for being such wonderful hosts. Your generosity helped us raise $260 for The LBW Trust.

Here is the link to the slides from tonight's seminar at James Ruse High School!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ys9wjoc0l1dmkwq/AACs19PcUDBWrVUD73ZymeGMa

James Ruse Shared with Dropbox

Excited to be having meetings with schools around Sydney to continue our work in 2014!