Katie Fisher is a physiotherapist by profession.  She currently works at the Day Therapy Centre which provides allied health services to the elderly.  Prior to this Katie did rehabilitation work in the UK which she found extremely rewarding.
Early this month Katie organized the ‘MS Society 80’s Fundraiser Event’ at the Prince Alfred Hotel in Port Melbourne which was a huge success.  Here Katie explains the passion behind the cause, and why helping people is such a big aspect of her life.



So tell me about yourself.
I am a physiotherapist and currently manage a Day Therapy Centre which provides allied health services to the frail aged living in the community.  We have physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, podiatry and allied health assistants working here and our aim is to improve the quality of life of our clients by allowing them to live independently in the community for longer and reducing their number of hospital admissions.  This is done through one to one therapy and group therapy which also provided valuable socialisation opportunities for an otherwise often isolated community.
My previous work has included working in various nursing homes across Melbourne providing physiotherapy services.  I have also working as a physiotherapist in the UK doing rehabilitation for elderly clients, private practice and some corporate health.  I have been lucky enough to have had good variety in the roles I have performed but I really do love working with elderly populations.

Why is helping people such a big aspect of your life?
I enjoy being able to make a difference in the lives of the people I work with.  I get great satisfaction from the feeling of being able to help someone improve their quality of life or maintain their independence.  I love that in my current role I am able to take the time to really get to know my clients and truly focus on helping them reach their goals.  We have a great team of dedicated professionals working with us and that also makes the job wonderful.  It is lovely to see the team working with their client to really make huge gains for that client in both function and independence.

What have been some of the issues that you’ve faced in your work?
Some of the challenges of the job include working with clients who are becoming increasingly frail and helping to manage their deteriorating health in the most appropriate way.  We also have limited space and funding which means that we cannot always provide the services we would like to.  Our aim is to keep things interesting for our clients so often coming up with new ideas to promote health and well being on a limited budget can be difficult but we do the best we can.

You recently held a MS Society Fundraising Event.  Tell me more about the event.
On Sat Oct 2nd I held an 80's Glam Night to raise funds for the MS Society.  Approx 45 guests attended and some went to great lengths with their costumes which made for a wonderful atmosphere.  There was also a live band (80's enuf) who played many old classics - the music really set off the night and everyone was dancing and having a wonderful time.  We managed to raise $600 for the MS Society, I hadn't really set a goal for the dollar amount I wanted to raise as it is has been a long time since I have organised a fund raiser and I really just wanted everyone to have a good night and raise some money for a very deserving cause in the mean time.  All in all the night was a great success.

What was involved in organizing the event?
Surprisingly there wasn’t too much to organize.  Initially I advertised the event through my social network on Facebook, then rang up the Prince Alfred Hotel to discover that they not only had an 80s cover hand (perfect!) but that their finger food was also good value for money.  An opportunity too good to miss!

Have you organized other big events before?
The last fundraising even that I organized was to raise money to send the University of QLD (where I studied) netball team to fly to Melbourne.  One of the jobs that we did was cleaning cars for $10.  An amusing incident occurred where a Ferrari driver offered to pay us three girls $50 provided that he could get a picture of us posing in front of the camera.  Yes, we were all fully clothed *smile*

What are some suggestions of organizing good fundraising events?
I can’t emphasise enough than to keep it simple!  It is important to keep the idea easy to understand and I would also encourage to keep the costs down so that your guests are more likely to come to the event.  After all, a $25 for a fundraising is more enticing than one that is $100 per head (although this is to personal taste of course). 
For such a busy person like yourself how do you keep organized?
I am a stickler for writing everything down.  I use reminders and spreadsheets on a regular basis.  I must say Outlook is my best friend *smile*

What do you do in your spare time?
I am a very sporty person so this includes playing touch rugby and softball over summer.  I also like to read non fiction – particularly medically based ones.  A terrific book that I’m currently reading is ‘Brain That Changes Itself.”  It focuses on the interesting concept of neuroplastics, where the brain has the ability to reorganize itself after injury (a large part of what I do in my daily job).