No child should wait in pain for specialist care.

Your gift today could help fund a new Paediatric Rheumatology Fellow – so more WA children with arthritis can be seen sooner.

“The earlier that someone can see a doctor and the earlier that they can get on medication that’s going to help them, the earlier that they can just live their childhood.”- Leila

Leila knows what it’s like to wait

Leila was twelve when she woke up in so much pain she couldn’t walk. For four months she hobbled on crutches while doctors, physios and even a podiatrist tried to find the cause.

When she was finally diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, she’d missed school, quit dance, and started watching her childhood shrink around her.

Once diagnosed, Leila went through five different medications, five rounds of joint injections, and surgery on both knees. Some drugs attacked her liver and others simply didn’t work.

Each trial took months of pain, of exhaustion, of coming home from school and falling asleep on the couch because her body had nothing left.

And Leila is far from alone. 

“If I’d been diagnosed earlier and got onto a medication that actually worked, it probably would have changed my whole teenage life. The things I could have done. The things I would have done.”  – Leila

Why a Fellow, and why now?

Due to a Paediatric Shortage in WA – and Australia wide –  children in the public system can wait months for specialist appointments. And due to a sliding scale of priority, some whose symptoms aren’t yet ‘bad enough’ aren’t being seen at all.

It means too many children are being diagnosed too late or waiting in pain for specialist appointments.

While they wait, their arthritis doesn’t. The inflammation quietly eats into young joints, risking permanent damage that can never be undone.

Right now, we have approximately 20 Paediatric Rheumatologists working in Australia against a recommended number is 61.

And Perth Children’s Hospital is currently the only accredited training site in the country with no funding for a Fellow position, risking us falling even further behind.

“Kids who are diagnosed late may sometimes have chronic joint damage, which is irreversible. A Fellow would help children be seen and treated earlier.”

– Dr Senq Lee, Head of Paediatric Rheumatology, Perth Children’s Hospital

Here’s how your gift today towards funding a new Fellow could help change that…

16 more kids a week

You could help 16 more children, from babies to teens get seen every week along with emergency clinics, reducing long public wait times or the risk of missing out altogether.

Better treatments, faster

You could help ensure Fellow-run research speeds up new discoveries, like effective treatments with less side-effects for kids like Leila in WA.

Safeguard the future

You could help to safeguard children’s care into the future by growing WA’s specialist team before an even larger shortage crisis hits.

Ultimately you will help kids living with arthritis live happier, healthier childhoods – sooner.

Your urgent gift could help to fund a new Paediatric Rheumatology Fellow so more WA children can be seen sooner.

Your gift is 100% tax-deductible.

Thank you for giving generously.