Catherine and Greg Hughes, the Perth parents of baby Riley who died from whooping cough last year, have revealed plans to set up Australia’s first charity dedicated to immunisation.

The Immunisation Foundation of Australia’s has been setup to help honour Riley’s life & protect other families from the devastating effects of vaccine-preventable disease that the family experienced when 32-day-old Riley died in March last year..

“Ever since Riley passed away, we’ve wanted to find a way to honour him, to honour our son while protecting other families from experiencing what we went through, protecting babies and families from the devastating effect of vaccine-preventable diseases,” Catherine said.

The foundation’s goals include lifting the Australian immunisation rate, educating the general community about vaccine-preventable diseases, reducing deaths in Australia and around the world and raising money to improve research.

“Our long-term vision is to be able to do some work internationally with establishing immunisation clinics in developing countries. It’s a big global problem,’ she said.

“Losing Riley was the worst thing we have ever experienced. Having direction and purpose definitely helps you get out of bed each morning. We are still doing this for him,” she said.

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