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Notes on the Run
Last week was another fascinating presentation by Dr Richard Pembury  on the history and perceived risks of Blood Transfusions. See Juris' report in this edition.
This week we also completed the last Board Meeting for 2025. The financial situation carefully presented by Ross puts us in good shape and we continue to save money for the Members Account which can be used to supplement other costs.
Importantly the Board approved donations from our Community account for a number of worthwhile charities, who will be asked to come to our lunch meetings to update us on the progress of their work. These are:
ROMAC (Rotary Oceana Medical Aid for Children) - $1,000 
Kids in Care ( a Canberra Charity - John Atkin has presented to us twice about their hard work alleviating the hardship on children when their family breaks down) - $1000
Toora Womens Shelter, Canberra Circle of Women and  Karinya Womens Refuge - $500 each
NTA (Nusa Tangarra Association - a Canberra based charity supporting small communities in West Timor, Indonesia, and Flores Island - $1000.
We will have sufficient funds to further support the Rotary Foundation before the end of the Rotary year.
We might be small, but we are committed to Doing Good.
Ed.
 
Dr Richard Pembury introduces his fascinating presentation.
Early trial to share blood between spouses to smooth out marital conflagrations..........
1600's was a long time ago - not much went right with those experiments...
Transmission Risks with Blood Transfusions - Dr Richard Pembury AM.
 
Dr Richard Pembury AM, gave us a thorough and lucid exposition on the development of blood transfusions through the ages and how they have functioned in Canberra in more recent decades.
Richard is a renowned haematologist, a retired specialist who led tumour research at our major regional and research hospital, Canberra Hospital, for several decades until retirement. He was also instrumental in setting up the blood bank in Canberra.
The risks of blood transfusions didn’t really become apparent until the AIDS epidemic engulfed the world’s attention. Scare campaigns became common even before social media took the lead in muddling fact with fiction.
Richard brought it home to us that the public really had little understanding of what was involved, particularly with so much misinformation being peddled, even by regular media sources we may have thought were reliable.
Nowadays we are blessed with the knowledge that governments at appropriate levels have successfully taken steps to legislate important safety measures, so that charlatans and exploiters do not enter the field of blood transfusions.  There are severe penalties where people endanger public health by their irresponsible actions.
Australians can be particularly happy that risks for us have been reduced from 30% to 1% over the last 30 years or so. This is possibly the best outcome of any country in the world.
Juris
Next Meeting 
Dylan Grubb is our guest speaker to talk on  Why We Need To Keep Fit
If you are planning on attending but haven’t responded to Eric’s invitation, please do so by 11 am on Tuesday, 2 December..
To see the program of future meetings, visit: Rotary activities Spreadsheet. 
 
       Duty Roster
Date:
Chair:
Guest:
Member to propose Toast to Rotary, introduce and thank guest speaker, and write up for Bulletin:
4th December 
Warrick
Dylan Grubb - Why you need to keep fit
 Neil
11th December
Warrick and Vanessa
Christmas Party at home.
Eat Drink and Be Merry
5th February 2026.             Stephen                               Golf Club. - - Programme tba       
 
And that’s the end of our year! Casual get togethers at the renowned fish and chip shop, Snapper & Co,  at Canberra Yacht club will commence 15th January if you are around. Please let Warrick know if you can come. Otherwise, meetings at the Royal Golf Club will re-commence on 5th February 2026 when Stephen MacMillan takes the Chair.
 
However as they say, the best is yet to come! We will celebrate Christmas at Warrick and Vanessa's home - Invitations have been sent. Final arrangements will be announced next week. It's a "bring a plate" dinner with drinks and meat supplied by the Club. What can you bring? 
 
 
 
 
Coming Up
 
Nara Peace Bell Ringing – December 10th   2025
7.15am Lennox Gardens, Yarralumla.
Zonta Says NO to Violence, YES to respectful relationships. 
Each year the Zonta Club of Canberra Breakfast participates in the UN “16 days of activism” in honour of the lives lost to domestic violence and to highlight our community need for change and respectful relationships
In seeking to uphold the United Nations Goal No5 to `Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’, we will continue our actions by:
highlighting our concerns through social media, and Wrapping trees in civic, 
lighting of the Parliamentary triangle buildings in orange for December 10th, 
Presenting a free webinar on Coercive Control on Nov 29th at 3.30pm. This is a joint initiative between CWA, Soroptimists and National Council of Women and Fearless Women, and Ringing the Peace Bell to honour those who have lost their lives in this calendar year.
We invite you to share with us and Rotary Burley Griffin in the ringing of the Rotary Nara Peace 
Bell. The bell will be struck once for each life lost, once for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, once for the children, once for the New Zealand women, and once for the men who have lost their lives through domestic violence. 
While the event is free, we ask you to book through Humanitix as numbers are limited. We encourage you to gather from 6.30am for a 7am start and the event will close by 8.30. Yours sincerely,
 Kay Fredericks 
 
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ClubRunner
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Please submit all articles for inclusion in the next Bulletin by Sunday evening to andrews79@iinet.net.au