Painting of the 13x13m Mary Raine mural began on February 17th (Mary Raine's birthday) and the *almost* finished mural was unveiled on International Women's Day, March 8th 2021, in celebration and honour of Mary Raine's success as a businesswoman, philanthropist and founder of the Raine Medical Research Foundation.
Who is Mary Raine?
From extremely humble beginnings in England, Mary Raine traveled to Australia. Working as a barmaid, she saved all her pennies and managed to buy some property, a great feat in this male dominated age.
After the property boom in the 1920s she found herself to become quite the wealthy woman. She married Joe Raine late in life, she was 66 years old and he was 13 years her junior. She never imagined he would pass before her so she was devastated when he suffered a severe stroke and died in 1957.
As Mary had no children, she decided to leave her property portfolio to UWA to launch a trust to start a medical research foundation. Her hope was that one day, no one would have to suffer the same pain that she did.
Dr. Amanda Cleaver, Director of the Raine Medical Foundation, was given the honour of officially 'opening' the mural. Since Mary Raine founded the Raine Medical Foundation in 1957, it has supported over 500 scientists to carry out important research into human diseases, for the benefit of all in the community.
The Foundation has allocated close to $50 million towards medical research to-date in support of two Centres of Excellence, major research grants, fellowships, scholarships, collaboration awards, publication prizes and the visits of international scholars in their aim to improve health outcomes for all of WA.