Australia Day 2017: Dedicated mum honoured in SA
A woman who has raised millions of dollars for medical research, a passionate paleontologist, and Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists are among the South Australians honoured in this year’s Australia Day awards.
Mother battling to give son 'best life possible'
South Australian mother Jessica Bond, who established the Captain Courageous Foundation, does digging of a different kind.
One of her sons, Angus, was born with a rare bone marrow failure disease and requires monthly blood transfusions to survive.
Ms Bond set up the foundation six years ago, funding research to find a cure.
“I wanted to give him [Angus] the best life possible so with that motivation behind us, my husband and I, we were like, we can do this,” she said.
“We’ll do one event and see how it goes and that event was way beyond what we thought it would be, it was extremely successful.”
Since its inception, the Captain Courageous Foundation has raised more than $3 million.
“We’ve made it from a single cell in a test tube to patient clinical trials as early as next year so it’s quite amazing to have come that far in such a short period of time,” Ms Bond said.
“I hope one day that, even if … we can’t find a cure [there are] better treatment options for these children and to see Angus and children like him to live a really long and happy life.”
Ms Bond has been honoured for her work with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).
