YOUR LOVE MATCH AWAITS
LOVE will take on a whole new meaning at this Valentine’s Day event in Hobart.
Tasmanians have been falling head over heels for tennis since the state’s COVID-19 lockdown, and an open day on Sunday aims to spread the love throughout the community.
Tennis player and Domain Tennis Centre business development manager Eddie Bourchier said with many people delaying their travel plans, people were looking to join in local activities.
“During the COVID period we were shut down for six weeks and opened back up in June. We’ve been pretty lucky here in Tassie staying open,” he said.
“We’ve noticed an increase in tennis, with a lot of people who have played in the past wanting to get back into it. It’s one of those sports people play throughout their life in some stage or another and it’s interesting how they find their way back into it one way or another.
“We increased membership by 25 per cent for that period.”
For those interested in getting
involved, a wide range of activities will be on offer for people of all ages and skill levels.
“We’ll have a lot of different events going on. We’ve got
wheelchair tennis as well, which can also be tried by able-bodied people. There’ll also be a speed gun so people can see how fast they can serve,” Mr Bourchier said.
Another highlight will be the Valentine’s Day mixed doubles, set to feature Mr Bourchier alongside Catherine Krueger, Sam Edgar and Casey Ambler.
“Mixed doubles are always fun and always bring people together,” he said.
The open day starts at 9.30am on Sunday, with registrations at domaintennis.com.au
A NEW combination treatment for the most aggressive and deadly childhood cancer will soon be tested on children after it eradicated cancer in animals with the brain tumour.
And it has been the donations of tissue from Australian children who have died from Diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas that allowed scientists to grow the 3D “mini brains” to test drugs on for the first time.
The treatment kept two thirds of mice with the fatal tumour alive.
There have been more than 250 clinical trials testing potential treatments for DIPG without success.
But lead researcher and Sydney Children’s Hospital paediatric oncologist Associate Professor David Ziegler said the “remarkable” findings raised hopes this cancer could be turned into a manageable disease for the 20 Australian children diagnosed each year.
“This drug completely stopped the tumour from growing,’’ he said.
“We’ve never seen a drug work as well as this. We’re very excited and this is a real breakthrough, but we won’t know that it works until we do the trials in children.”
Researchers from the Children’s Cancer Institute and University of NSW tested two drugs that are also being trialled in adult cancer patients – a 30-year-old drug called difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), and a new experimental agent called AMXT 1501.
Associate Professor Ziegler said while DFMO was not effective on its own, when combined with the new drug candidate it could block the path cancer cells took to keep growing and shut down the engine room of cell activity fuelling the cancer.
“The results were quite remarkable,” Associate Professor Ziegler he said.