Why We Need Your Help

To find a cure.

That’s it.

We raise money and provide it to world-leading scientists like Distinguished Professor Richard Faull and Professor Maurice Curtis so that they may be able to continue the amazing work they do.

In 2005 Bernie was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a neurological disease which affects the nervous system and subsequent muscular co-ordination.  It also affects memory and speech and is often accompanied by a tremor.  It was in 2010 that Bernie and Kaye were at a fundraising dinner in Auckland raising money for the Auckland Medical School and Bernie found himself sitting next to Dr Maurice Curtis of the Centre for Brain Research (CBR) which is associated with the University of Auckland.  It was co-incidental that this seating was so fortuitous for both the CBR and the Crosby’s.  Dr Curtis demonstrated enormous passion, conviction and energy in his pursuit of knowledge of the function and makeup of the brain.  It was from this chance meeting that Bernie decided, being the optimist he is and looking for good things that come his way, that they should raise money for the CBR to continue the work that Dr Maurice Curtis and associates were performing.  They started committing to raising $1m over period of 5 years at a rate of $200k per year.  From CBR’s point of view this provides certainty and enables researchers to be retained to progress their work over a period of years without having to start and stop when funding runs out. 

Bernie believes this is life’s work and, although the initial target has been reached, he and Kaye remain very committed to ongoing funding to support this good cause and invite others to join in with them and help fund research.  It is only through research that new findings for a cure can be found, not only for Parkinson’s, but also Dementia, Huntington’s and Alzheimers all of which affect the brain. Bernie has a saying  “NO DREAM TOO BIG“ and this dream is being realised through the Neuro Research Charitable Trust – the vehicle he and Kaye set up to transfer funds to this great cause.

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Sir Richard Faull
KNZM, ONZM, BMedSc MBChB Otago, PhD DSc, FRSNZ

Distinguished Professor Faull is founder and director of the Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank based at the University of Auckland.

With a research career spanning over 35 years, Professor Faull is recognised internationally as a leading expert on the workings of the human brain and the neuro-degenerative diseases that can affect it. In 2007, his research group provided the first evidence that the diseased human brain can repair itself by the generation of new brain cells, overturning the long-held view that the adult brain can only degenerate.

Professor Faull’s contributions to neuroscience were recognised by the University of Auckland in 1993 with the award of a Personal Chair in Anatomy. In 2002 he was awarded the Inaugural Peter Gluckman Medal and Distinguished Faculty International Lecturer at the University of Auckland. In 2005 he was awarded the Liley Medal by the Health Research Council and in 2007, New Zealand’s top science honour, the Rutherford Medal. In 2010, Professor Faull was the Supreme Winner of the World Class New Zealand Awards.

In the 2017 New Year Honours he was knighted in the order for services to medical research.

Professor Maurice Curtis
BHSc Unitec, MSc PhD

Maurice Curtis is a Neuroscientist and Professor at the Centre for Brain Research – University of Auckland.

Maurice completed a PhD in Anatomy and Pharmacology under the guidance of Professor Richard Faull and investigated whether or not the human brain had the capacity to make new brain cells, which is a phenomenon thought not to exist in the brain. The findings from his PhD were ground-breaking.

In addition to receiving the University of Auckland’s Best Thesis Award, Maurice was also awarded the Neurological Foundation Philip Wrightson Postdoctoral Fellowship to work on stem cells in the brain at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden with Professor Peter Eriksson. During his work in Sweden, Maurice, together with colleagues in New Zealand including Professor Faull, discovered a long distance migratory pathway that stem cells in the brain migrate through.