Ren Pedersen

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Ren Michael Pedersen OAM (born "Rene" in Atherton, North Queensland, Australia) is an advocate for children's brain cancer research.

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After the death of his daughter Amy from a brain stem cancer known as Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), Pedersen founded the independent Australian arm of The Cure Starts Now. [1]

Pedersen was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the 2022 Australia Day Honours for service to the community. [2]

The Cure Starts Now (Australia)

The Cure Starts Now was founded in 2007 by Cincinnati's Keith and Brooke Desserich with Pedersen the former director of the independent Australian branch of the organization. In 2009, the organization became an official DGR Registered Australian charity (Incorporation #IA37656) [3] and then in 2019 a new charity name The Cure Starts Now Australia Limited was registered as a charity. [4]

In 2013 the organisation was awarded a $109,000 Monash Institute of Medical Research Grant to fund "Targeted Drug and Stem Cell Therapy" trials [5] and was featured at the International Symposium on Pediatric Neuro-Oncology in Singapore in 2014. [6]

Pedersen sat on the Cure Starts Now's Strategic Advisory Council, which has overseen the approval of approximately $25M AUD worth of new BT/DIPG research projects in the past decade. [7] He remains on the board of the organisation he founded. [8]

Fundraising for cancer research

To date approximately $5 million has been directly raised by The Cure Starts Now (Australia) [9] for DIPG brain tumour research, since its 2009 inception [10]

Significant fundraising activities include:

Personal life

Pedersen is a certified helicopter pilot, attaining his Commercial Pilot Licence at the age of 52. [25]

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References

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  2. "Australia Day 2022 Honours List | Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia". Gg.gov.au. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  3. "ABN lookup". 25 January 2024. 25 January 2024.
  4. Commonwealth of Australia (1 November 2019). "Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission". Australian charities and not-for-profits commission. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  5. "A father has raised $100,000 to fight deadly cancer in honour of daughter". Herald Sun. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  6. Rachel Afflick (21 July 2014). "Townsville father takes cancer cure campaign to world stage in Singapore". Townsvillebulletin.com.au. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
  7. "Strategic". Thecurestartsnow.org. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  8. "Our Board". The Cure Starts Now Australia. 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  9. "Changing The Future For Children With Brain Cancer | CCI". Ccia.org.au. 2 June 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  10. "Amy's story | DIPG cancer | Children's Cancer Institute". Ccia.org.au. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  11. Cassidy, Adene (24 October 2015). "Surprise funding boost for child cancer scientists". Yahoo! News. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  12. Backhouse, Andrew (2 September 2017). "Allies battle kid cancer". Townsville Bulletin. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  13. "Grant supports WIMR's much-needed research into aggressive childhood brain tumour". Westmeadinstitute.org.au. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
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  24. "Dr Dannielle Upton". University of NSW. 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
  25. "Ren Pedersen OAM Founder TCSN Australia". thecurestartsnow.org.au. Retrieved 25 May 2023.