When Alex decided to sign up for this year’s Hill to Harbour fun run, she wasn’t just committing to an early morning training schedule, she was putting her legs to work to help raise much needed funds for medical research.
Alex has spent her career asking the question, how does our immune system respond to infection, and how can we use that knowledge to protect people? The search for answers has taken her around the world and into the heart of some of the most significant vaccine breakthroughs of our time.
Before returning to Australia in 2022, Alex spent 16 years at the University of Oxford. During that time, she was part of the team that developed the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which was ultimately licensed globally and administered to hundreds of millions of people. She was also involved in work on a malaria vaccine that is now being rolled out across Africa. Results of the vaccine are already speaking for themselves, with fewer children are presenting at hospital with malaria since its initial rollout.
Now based in Newcastle, Alex is channelling that same drive into the Hill to Harbour, running to raise vital funds for HMRI.
“Funding for research in Australia, and particularly for medical research, has dramatically declined. So I thought I’d put my runners on and use that as a way to raise money so that we can keep our research institute functioning,” Alex says.
Training, she admits, has had its moments.
“My training is going okay. I am older than when I used to run a lot, so there’s a few niggles and pains which I try and ignore”, Alex says.
“It’s a good opportunity to have something to aim for, because otherwise I wouldn’t be getting up at six o’clock in the morning when it’s still dark”.
Alex will be running the whole 12 kilometres in this years Hill to Harbour and fundraising for HMRI will be motivating her over every metre on the day.
“Medical research has a potential to impact everyone’s lives. So, if you’re donating to HMRI, you know that you’re going to have an impact on local communities”.
The 2026 Hill to Harbour kicks off on 29 March. Click here to join Team HMRI to help raise funds for medical research that saves lives.
