Heart scholarship gift to prince

Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute Medallion - The dead and the living share a transplanted heart.

January 23, 2006

DENMARK'S little prince is set to mend hearts.

A Danish doctor or scientist will head down under later this year to study heart disease under a scholarship given to the royal couple by Australia's Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute (VCCRI) for their son's christening.

Having lost her own mother to heart disease, Princess Mary has taken a keen interest in the issue, and visited the VCCRI while touring Australia with Prince Frederick last year.

VCCRI's executive director Professor Robert Graham today said he hoped the heir to the Danish throne, christened yesterday in Copenhagen's Christiansborg Palace church, would follow in his mother's footsteps.

"We hope that in the future Prince Christian will also take a keen interest and be supportive of heart disease research," Professor Graham said.

The Prince Christian Scholarship would work toward strengthening collaborative efforts between Australian and Danish researchers, he said.

"(We) have long shared a common bond of excellence in biomedical research.

"The successful applicant will have the opportunity to work in a centre-of-excellence with world-class scientists, who are committed to finding important new preventions and treatments for heart disease."

The scholarship will start later this year when the first recipient joins the VCCRI.
©The Australian

Links:
Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute - Mary is Honorary Life Governor of the Institute (located in Sydney)
Danish Heart Association - Mary is patron of this organisation.