A huge thank you to everyone who supported Wound Awareness Week 2024. Whether you hosted a morning tea, took to social media, watched and shared our videos and factsheets, or attended a Lunch Bytes webinar: we are grateful for your support. Here's an overview of activities around Australia.

Making an impact

A key goal of Wound Awareness Week is to elevate chronic wounds to a top national health priority. Forging new – and strengthening existing – relationships with thought leaders and policymakers is an important way of doing this. We were delighted to receive support from Minister for Health the Hon Mark Butler MP, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care the Hon Ged Kearney MP (pictured below), and Member for Boothby Louise Miller-Frost MP at various Wound Awareness Week events around the country.

Two pivotal events helped stimulate the national conversation. The first was a roundtable discussion at the University of South Australia's Future Industries Institute, featuring leading researchers, clinicians and industry partners, to launch the week. The next day, our Ambassador Professor Fiona Wood AO addressed the National Press Club on the need for urgent wound care reform, launching the Wounds Australia 5 Point Plan to Solve Australia's Chronic Wound Epidemic.

Professional learning (and cake)

Congratulations to the Wounds Australia Queensland Committee for hosting a well-attended education session at BallyCara Retirement Village with two speakers addressing around 50 residents (pictured). Thanks to QUT, the Rosemary Bryant Foundation and BallyCara – Independent Living & Aged Care Australia for organising, facilitating and supporting the event.

Uniting continued its strong tradition of events and education during Wound Awareness Week, with staff attending our daily Lunch Bytes sessions plus presentations from Mölnlycke and Uniting's internal education team, and enjoying a pressure injury and ulcer-focused Big Oozie Bake Off, as you can see in these pictures! We're ever grateful for Uniting's support.

Our corporate partners also celebrated in style around the country, as these photos from Solventum show.

And our Lunch Bytes webinar series was well received for another year; a reminder that these sessions will be available to watch on-demand.

Watch, read, listen

Our energetic Ambassador Professor Wood travelled around Australia talking about the nation's chronic wound problem. Catch-up on some of her press:

• ABC Radio's Nightlife [46 mins]
• National Press Club address [1 hour 4 mins]
• ANMJ [5 mins]

Thank you

So many passionate professionals help make Wound Awareness Week grow in size and impact every year. Our thanks to all the members, committees, partners and others around the country who marked the event in some way, with our special thanks to: Prof Allison Cowin and Dr Zlatko Kopecki; Dr Jenny Prentice and Lynnette Rodriguez; Dr Ut Bui with QUT and the Wounds Australia Queensland Committee; Uniting; Clara Walker and the Bundoora Centre team, and to Northern Health Interim CEO Debra Bourne and the Public Affairs team; our Lunch Bytes presenters Melissa Freeman, Sinead Blee, Catherine Leahy and Dr Sally Ng; and to our valued Partners Smith+Nephew, Mölnlycke and Solventum.