Aussies ready to roll up their sleeves for ANGI – C’mon!

Aussies ready to roll up their sleeves for ANGI – C’mon!

 

A jingle in Australia goes like this: C’mon Aussie, c’mon c’com, c’mon Aussie, c’mon. Its origin stems from our

love of the summer game of cricket, of yelling as we watch balls being bowled and hit over the fence ‘for six’. It’s about doing our best. This national call is appropriate in bowling ED for six too – not over the fence, but out of our lives.

We Aussies are doing great! So far, 850 of us – people who have had, or have, Anorexia Nervosa – have indicated willingness to roll up our sleeves to help find a cure for this horrid illness! Already, 850! Can you believe it?! In four weeks! We Aussies are showing Anorexia Nervosa what we think of it – we are happy to roll up our sleeve and donate blood to help our researchers find the cause. We are well on the way to cracking the Aussie target of 1200 and showing Anorexia Nervosa the door! Only a month has passed since I joined  Prof. Bulik at the launch of ANGI, the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative, at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR). The research team is hugely impressed with this great response in such a short time.

Australia is one of the countries participating in ANGI, a global effort to identify genes that contribute to eating disorders – and ultimately find a cure. Researchers in the US, Sweden, Australia and Denmark aim to collect clinical information and blood samples from more than 8000 people with and without an eating disorder to better understand these devastating conditions. Researchers originally said they had  four years to gather the samples. Four years? No way! We want to speed things along. We want answers sooner rather than later. We have waited long enough! Australian research team leader, Professor Tracey Wade, of Flinders University, shares our enthusiasm for maintaining momentum. She says: Keep contacting us! We want more! 

So c’mon Aussies, c’mon!

Let’s aim to get our 1200 samples within one year instead of four.

To find out more information or to volunteer in Australia to support the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative, click on the link and follow the prompts, contact the research team on the free call number 1800 257 179 or email: anti@qimr.edu.au

Signed up – the next step

If, like me, you are one of the 850 Aussies who have already volunteered to participate in ANGI, you may be wondering about the next step – that of donating the blood sample. Today the ANGI team at QIMR sent this letter:

Thank you for recently completing the Eating Disorder online survey.

We have had an overwhelming response so far to our recruitment campaign – over 850 have participated so far.  This is an amazing result of which we are very proud.

We are contacting you today to update you on what is happening with the project.

As you may remember from the study information sheet, the next step is to screen each participant’s answers to identify eligible participants for the blood collection phase of the study.  Those eligible for this phase will receive a blood collection kit.

We are currently in the process of organising the delivery of the blood collection kits to eligible participants.  Due to the large volume of participants to receive a kit, we will have to stagger the delivery process, as our laboratory cannot supply nor process such a large number of kits, especially if they are all returned at the same time.  As such, we will begin contacting eligible participants in the next few weeks and let them know when to expect their blood collection kit.

Because of this, it’s very important that you please keep us informed with your most up-to-date contact details.  You can email to us any changes by replying to this email – angi@qimr.edu.au; or call our toll free number 1800 257 179.

So, be patient, keep looking in the post for your collection kit. I am!

If you have not yet signed up but, like me, have experienced AN and would like to make your experience count in finding a cure, click right here. C’mon Aussies, c’mon. We can do it!