About

RRAAAM – Rotary Ride Around Australia Against Malaria

March 1 to April 24, 2015.

Malaria is not a distant and remote disease that infected our soldiers in New Guinea in WWII, it is a growing problem, spreading through tropical countries, and moving south from New Guinea as the conditions change allowing the spread of the anopheles mosquito and the spread of Malaria.

The Rotary Club of Williamtown Inc. has organised a group of motorcyclists to conduct a marathon ride around Australia. The aim is to raise funds and awareness for our fight against Malaria. Few people are aware that Malaria, the third most lethal disease in the world, could enter our country at any moment.

The riders will stop over at most of the major centres along their way giving awareness talks and raising much needed funding to implement pilot program of Malaria eradication in a selected area of Papua New Guinea. The trial is based on the format used in Timor Leste where, in just eight years, the number of cases has reduced from 223,000 to an incredibly low 1,042 reported cases. Malaria is preventable and curable.

Dorene and Steve Carroll have experienced first hand the devastation of contracting malaria while on an adventure holiday.  Like so many of us, in 1989 Steve took their daughter Michelle on a “thank you” trip to Sabah in Borneo. They explored jungle rivers and villages, visited the orangutan re-education centre and climbed Mt. Kinabablu. The kind of trip so many young Australians do now to Malaria infected countries.

Two weeks later fever struck both of them. Another 24 hours and Michelle was fighting for her life. Just three months later after being evacuated to Australia she lost the battle. Over the years Steve has suffered 3 primary infections and 4 relapses.

This year, 25 years on, Steve and a fellow retired soldier Grahme Rayner want to honour her memory and raise money for the fight against Malaria. The Rotary Club of Williamtown Inc. will undertake the Rotary Ride Around Australia Against Malaria (RRAAAM) leaving Newcastle on March 1, 2015, travelling around Australia in 54 days on motorcycles.

We encourage motorcyclists to join us for as many days as can be spared and share in the journey to raise awareness of the increasing threat of Malaria. This project will form a model that can be replicated, reducing the incidence throughout our neighbour, and reducing the risk of the spread toward Australia.

Help us to spread the word on the ride and to stop the spread of Malaria. In partnership with Rotary, we can succeed in eradicating the Malaria parasite just as we have Polio.