On Friday 11 May, the fabulous charity Girls Got Heart held their second annual fundraising luncheon, ‘Hearts on the River’, raising an impressive, and much needed $15,000+ for Heart of Australia.
These funds will go directly into supporting vital specialist medical services that the Heart Trucks deliver to regional Queenslanders every day.
For those unfamiliar with the Girls Got Heart story, in 2017 two everyday Brisbane mums, Rebecca East and Keely Mancini, attended a fundraising event at Scott and Anne-Maree Attwooll’s property ‘Uralla’ in Meandarra, around 360 kilometres west of Brisbane. They organised the event in memory of their friend, Graeme Bridle, who they lost suddenly due to heart failure.
This fantastic event saw 300 guests from far and wide converge in the scorching heat to celebrate a life well lived that ended too soon, and to raise funds for Heart of Australia to expand the reach of its mobile specialist clinic.
For Bec and Keely, the event highlighted the life and death reality that rural and regional individuals and families face every day. But inspired by the spirit of the community and the work that Dr Gomes and the Heart of Australia were doing, Bec and Keely resolved to combine their love for cycling with their desire to make a difference for people in rural Queensland. Girls Got Heart was born.
The inaugural endurance ride in 2017 raised $120,000. These funds have helped fund the building of Heart Truck 3, a new smaller truck currently under construction. This truck will allow us to better respond to high demand peaks and patient overflow, expand the different services we offer, and step up our community engagement program.
On behalf of the entire HoA team, our patients, their families and the regional communities we support we’d like to thank Keely, Rebecca, the 2017 riders & support crew, and everyone who attended the luncheon.
Together, we are changing the health outcomes for people in rural Queensland.
