Recently, ALH Group Queensland State Manager, Trevor Smith presented Mater Foundation Executive Director, Nigel Harris with a cheque for $100 000 raised from their Talk Blue fundraiser.
Throughout the month of February, staff and patrons to over 100 ALH venues across Queensland were encouraged to help support the initiative by dressing up as doctors and nurses, and paying fines to Talk Trash—Give Cash swear jars. Two dollars from every steak sold in February was also donated. The money is helping fund Mater Medical Research Institute (MMRI) to develop a more effective treatment for prostate cancer. MMRI has recently completed a Phase 1 clinical trial around immunotherapy to fight the disease.
Mater Foundation’s Deputy Director of Fundraising, Paul Reis, said that ALH chose to support Mater Foundation for a number of reasons.
“ALH are very socially responsible and wanted to promote men’s health,” said Paul. “With such a large male patronage at ALH venues, it was really important to ALH to support something practical and meaningful for their customers. One in nine Australian men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime and yet many men still don’t talk about it. ALH saw an opportunity to connect with their customers and promote the importance of prostate cancer research.”
Each ALH venue in Queensland was set a $1000 target and with strong support from staff, the combined total was $100 000.
“Partnering with organisations like ALH is just so valuable for everyone,” Paul said. “In this case, it was a big win for medical research and the 61 000 men in Australia that currently have the disease and the further 19 000 that will be diagnosed this year. ALH connected with their customers on a new level, staff got to be part of a team that was working for a great cause and Mater and ALH promoted their partnership and achieved a great result for research.”