We gratefully acknowledge our Patrons who support the National Premmie Foundation.
Tracey Spicer
I am honoured to be Patron of National Premmie Foundation. My son Taj was premature, suffering Hyaline Membrane
Disease and extremely low birth weight. He spent the first three weeks of his life in neonatal intensive care, battling for every breath. Now, he’s a rambunctious two year old, weighing a whopping 15 kilos! My heart goes out to other parents who are thrown into the maelstrom of having a premmie baby.
Some families spend months by the bedside of their tiny offspring, wishing and praying they will make it through.
Please, support National Premmie Foundation to give emotional and practical support to these parents during the most difficult time of their lives.
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Sharon Bates
Sharon is the very proud mother of a thriving 16 month old who was born at 25 weeks gestation, she is very passionate about the care and support offered to premature babies and their families. She has written many articles on premature babies. Sharon is senior executive with the National Australia Bank, currently in the role of Head of Strategy. She also undertakes a broad range of speaking engagements and has recently been approached to join the Voxy Lady Speaker’s Bureau. Her strengths are that she is a senior leader of strategic development, implementation and operations management, with significant experience driving business sustainability and superior operations performance across the manufacturing and banking & finance sectors. Her past roles have included Head of Operations, Head of Quality & Process and Executive Manager of Quality at National Australia Bank. Sharon is honoured to be supporting the National Premmie Foundation.
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Pinky McKay – Sleep Expert
An International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and a Certified Infant Massage Instructor, Pinky McKay is a Melbourne based writer and editor specialising in health, education and family issues.
Pinky is the author of ‘Sleeping Like a baby‘ (Penguin 2006), Parenting By Heart’ (Lothian 2001), ‘100 Ways to Calm the Crying’ (Lothian 2002) and ‘How do we Tell the Kids?’(Prentice Hall 1995).
Pinky has been working with parents for more than 25 years but has a diverse background of professional experience which includes advertising copywriting (she’s a graduate of The Copy School, Melbourne), media consulting in the area of Crisis Management, editing/ writing The Melbourne and Sydney Baby Planners (formerly The Baby Book), the best selling ‘Bargain Shoppers guide to Melbourne’ and ‘Choosing a School For Your Child’, as well as a guide to Postnatal Depression for health professionals. She has also worked as a PR consultant for the Vic Health Body Image and Eating Behaviours project in conjunction with the Anorexia and Bulimia foundation (1990s) and has written for The Age, Mother and Baby magazine, Coles Baby Magazine and Vogue Kids.
The mother of four adult ‘children’ and a now teenage ‘bonus baby’ (the baby you have when your other kids can run their own baths, tie their own shoelaces and even drive their own cars!), Pinky’s greatest delight at present is enjoying the precious chuckles and squeals of her first gorgeous grandchild.
Having experienced it all from both sides of the episiotomy, Pinky knows first hand how much parents need to laugh – or some days they’d cry. Her warmth and humour make her a popular guest speaker.
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Professor Dominic Fitzgerald
Associate Professor Dominic Fitzgerald is a paediatric respiratory and sleep physician in Sydney who works atThe 
Children’s Hospital at Westmead. He has a long standing clinical and research interest in children born preterm and the respiratory consequences of preterm delivery. Dominic has experience in the neonatal intensive care unit as parent and paediatrician which has given him a broad perspective when discussing the consequences of preterm delivery.
Dominic A. Fitzgerald MBBS PhD FRACP
Clinical Associate Professor, the University of Sydney,
Senior Staff Specialist,
Department of Respiratory Medicine
The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney.
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If you would like to become a Patron for the National Premmie Foundation please contact us.
