Donor stories

The Dr Gerald and Suzanne Murphy Travel Award is a fund designed to help early career clinician-researchers share discoveries on the global stage. The 2026 recipient is Dr Duy Duan (John) Nguyen, who will use the award to attend an international conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and related neurodegenerative diseases in Copenhagen.

This November, a dedicated group of trekkers will take on the Snowy Mountains as part of QBI’s Steps for Dementia challenge, raising funds in the fight against dementia. Among them is retired town planner, Neil Wilson, who will be walking in memory of his late wife, Maureen, who died from Alzheimer’s disease.

Longtime QBI supporter Matthew Hickey OAM KC wrote a moving article in Queensland’s leading journal of the Bar Association Hearsay reflecting on the profound impact of dementia.

Determined to honour her brother's life and help others battling Parkinson's, Lynda established the Ray Clarke Endowment Fund at QBI to support vital research. 

Recognising stroke and motor neuron disease (MND) had only limited treatment options and no cures prompted Lyn and Bobbie Brazil to establish the Brazil Family Program for Neurology in 2017.

In April 2023, the McCusker Charitable Foundation made a generous philanthropic gift of $1 million to the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) to support multiple activities in the dementia space and RNA therapies.

Generous UQ donors, Alan and Wendy Grummitt, grew up in a world where life was always a bit of a struggle, facing the challenge in their early lives of making ends meet. But when their many years of hard work and dedication brought them good fortune, the couple knew they had a responsibility to help ease the burden on others.

Since 2017, Janice Rushworth has led three groups of fundraisers to trek through beautiful Australian locales, all while raising money to support QBI PhD students in their research of Alzheimer’s disease. 

“When Ian passed away from dementia in 2018, we wanted to do something significant and inspiring that would touch on his legacy. The decision to memorialise him through a scholarship at the Queensland Brain Institute was unanimous and helped us get through our grief.”