The Australian Premiere of the impactful, internationally acclaimed documentary Salt in My Soul hits our shores this March as part of a nationwide mission to raise awareness for antibiotic resistance. Screenings will take place in 5 States and are followed by interactive forums with national and international thought leaders.
Salt in My Soul follows Mallory Smith, a young Californian woman with cystic fibrosis, as she battles a drug-resistant infection that threatens to, and eventually does, end her life. A compilation of videos of Mallory’s life, excerpts from her posthumously published diary, and intimate interviews with those left behind, the film is a heartbreaking and important message about the true impact of antimicrobial resistance (or AMR, for short), underscoring the human cost underlying the statistics.
Since Mallory’s passing, her mother, Diane Shader Smith, has pivoted her highly successful career as a writer, publicist and fundraiser in Beverly Hills to travelling around the world sharing Mallory’s story to raise awareness for AMR with the power of the patient voice.
“AMR can touch anyone, whether through recurring respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, glue ear, sepsis, chronic wounds and many others” says Shader Smith. “In Mallory’s case, a bacterial infection in her lungs had become resistant to antibiotics – to the point that even a lung transplant was not enough to escape the infection.”
“I am not a doctor, not a scientist, not a lobbyist. Just a grieving mom who doesn’t want anyone to have suffer the way that my daughter did.”
To support the AMR Australia Mission, Mallory’s parents are flying to Australia to attend the screenings and take part in discussion forums with audiences. They are joined by Richard Alm, Chief Scientist of CARB-X, a US-based organisation that is one of the largest funders for AMR innovation globally. Additional guest speakers include former Australian of the Year, Professor Fiona Wood (in Perth) and Director of the Centre for Superbug Solutions, Mark Blaskovich (in Brisbane).
The initiative is being led and organised by Perth biotech company, Lixa, who aims to uplift the way that bacterial resistance is talked about and addressed in Australia.
“As a biomedical innovator and mother of a former AMR patient, I strongly believe that the collective knowledge in the world can already solve antimicrobial resistance. However, it takes dedicated commitment to bring that knowledge together and look honestly at all the factors contributing to this multifaceted problem. Solutions need to be scalable regardless of the economic means of a country or individual, because superbugs do not care about borders.” Says Lixa CEO, Dr Maud Eijkenboom. “Our aim with AMR Awareness Australia was to create a vehicle to bring the conversation from bacterial resistance as a scientific concept to AMR as an urgent threat that is affecting all of us deeply.”
Antimicrobial resistance (also known as antibiotic resistance or AMR) happens when bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites no longer respond to the medicine that once treated them. Bacteria are building resistance to existing antibiotics faster than new antibiotics are entering the market and we have already reached a point at which not all bacterial infections are treatable anymore. AMR currently causes the death of nearly 1.3 million people every year – a number that threatens to climb as high as 10 million by 2050.
The nationwide tour all kicks off in Perth on the 3rd of March before heading to Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. More information and tickets can be found at www.amraustralia.com
