4 May 2017
With an impressive 238 participants taking part this year, it’s been another successful stage of the Great New Zealand Trek (GNZT): This year’s Stage 12 held earlier in March 2017, from Burkes Pass area just west of Fairlie to Becks in the heart of Central Otago, raised another $36,000, bringing the total support from the charitable trust to over $250,000.
Professor Anne La Flamme, who leads our Multiple Sclerosis (MS) research programme also participated in the trek, having done so since 2010. Her 12-year-old daughter Josie joined her this year for the first time.
Thanks to the generosity of the GNZT we are able to pursue novel and cutting-edge ideas. Professor Anne La Flamme says: “Most times these ideas are risky and they might not work, but they could prove enormous beneficial if they do. Because of the risk, it is incredibly difficult to find the funds to start this research, but having funds from the GNZT gives us that ability.”
The key achievements in our MS research have been in identifying several new therapeutic strategies to treat progressive MS and seeing them undergo clinical trials.
Kitty Johnson, a trustee and the organiser of the GNZT supports our MS research. “Professor Anne La Flamme’s engagement and the research team’s ability to think outside the box and probe new never-before- seen scientific discoveries is what it makes exciting and fundamentally important at the same time.”, she summaries.
For more information on The Great New Zealand Trek and to find out how you can get involved in Stage 13 in March 2018, please visit the GNZT’s website.