Let’s think about dates for a minute. Dates that are important to us and signify usually something positive – birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, or the birth of your children. The date that is cemented in my mind is 31^st January 1999. This was the day, after 12 months of pins and needles in my hand and feet, lack of co-ordination, falling over and off stools, that I finally had a for it. Multiple Sclerosis. The only time I’d heard of MS was the readathon in Primary School!

And so began a very funny, slightly sad, but overall utterly inspiring speech by Gerard Chalmers.  A speech that touched the hearts and minds of 540 people. A speech that set the tone for an amazing evening.  A speech that in years to come will be talked about by many and forgotten by very few…

The Youngcare Walk Gala dinner was by all accounts a smashing success.

It kicked off with a massive bang as Brazilian drummers and dancers entered the Hilton Ballroom. To check them out click here.

Karl Stefanovic, who kindly MC’d the evening, and who has been a great ambassador and supporter of the cause and walk, was a true star. Despite his bad jokes (I do have weight issues) he entertained the crowd, posed for hundreds of photo’s, danced for $100 bucks (he did ask for $200 but was refused so with ego crushed he powered on) and even bought an auction item – Mundine’s gloves. I don’t think they will help in his upcoming bout with Wendell Sailor.

Karl also kicked the night off with heaps of lucky door prizes.

Mike Lorge from Sage Software Australia (our wonderful major sponsor) spoke about Sage’s on-going commitment to the cause which is great news. We could not have had such a successful event without them.

Dee Uluweira and Lalita Ari, two awesome individual singers, then rocked the house as a duo.

Dee, an accomplished Soloist & Background vocalist was born to sing! Dee has extensively toured the world for the last 3 years and has worked alongside the world's finest, including Australia's own Guy Sebastian, Deni Hines, Paulini and Venetta Fields.

For the past ten years Lalita has been working professionally as a session singer, and also keeps busy with numerous singing/acting performances including sports events, media commercials and television appearances including Good Morning Australia and The Denise show on the Seven Network.

The three very ordinary blokes who walked 300k’s then shared a few stories about the adventure. A video was played to the potbellies soundtrack and you can check it on out the home page of the website or click here.

David Conry gave a powerful and very moving speech about what Youngcare means, what the walk has achieved and what needs to be done.

Bruce Connors from Pickles auction led a wild 20 minutes of keen bidding unfold for all of our auction items which raised $23,700.

Bidding for the silent auction was just as ferocious with jerseys, holidays, electronic equipment, Home and Away scripts and dresses just to name things all under the hammer. In total, we made $21,000 from the silent auction.

Following all the formalities Boogie Fever took the stage and set the night alight with hundreds of people crashing the dance floor to boogie!!!

The night would not have been the success it was without the support of quite a few people. A huge thank you to Vanessa, Katrina, Rachael, Annick, Brooke, Sonya and Tim for the past 9 months of planning & hard work culminating in such a wonderful night.

Keith and his team at Event Sound did an amazing job. The Hilton were awesome and to all the other companies and supporters who helped make this happen with products and services, another heart felt thank you.

Without the support of family, friends, business and Government, the walk and the Gala dinner just would not have happened and would not have been the tremendous success it was. Without the support of family, friends, business and Government the dream of opening a Youngcare apartment here in Sydney will not happen. This is the start, not the end.  Let’s not forget that only weeks ago not many people in NSW knew about this issue or even knew about Youngcare. Now we have raised $155,000 and more than 6.6 million people across the country now know about the issue and know about Youngcare….

Giddyup