Round Table to help foundation

Press, 12 October 1976, Page 44

Round Table to help foundation

The Greymouth Round Table is joining in the biggest project yet started by Round Table New Zealand— Foundation 41—to raise funds to study why sometimes a normal baby is not born from a seemingly healthy pregnancy.

The project gets its name from the 40 weeks of a baby's development in the womb and the first week after birth.

A trust board has been formed, which will include five medical representatives, and the chairman is Sir Ronald Scott.

A nation-wide appeal from November 6 to 8 is planned, with a target of $250,000.

The convenor of the Greymouth Round Table's subcommittee dealing with the project (Mr D. R. McDowell) said yesterday that research) into the time between conception and birth needed to) be widened.

One baby in 10 born in New Zealand has a mental or physical defect. In only a third of the cases is the cause of the defect known. Little was known about some congenital malformations. Other projects being studied include foetal growth, brain and respiratory developments and cot deaths. Foundation 41 is working closely with a similar foundation in Australia, which was a brainchild of an Australian gynaecologist. Dr William Mcßride. He won

worldwide recognition after discovering the harmful effects of thalidomide. He started the Australian foundation with a persona! donation of $40,000.

In Greymouth, according to Mr McDowell, there will be a lead-up campaign to the appeal. The president of Greymouth Round Table (Mr H. J. Culling) said that because his club had only recently started, a door-to-door collection was not possible. But schools and chemist shops were being asked if they would become bases, where donations could be left.

Funds raised by Foundation 41 will be administered by the trust board with the Medical Research Council. It will be used to pay research workers doing full-time study into the various problems.

The appeal is not aimed to feed and fire the abortion issue, according to Round Table. It is intended to provide knowledge and understanding into the causes of handicaps, and provide a basis for trying to prevent them.

It will work on the concept that every child bom should have a maximum opportunity for healthy development.