Welcome to the SUCCEED Annual Report for 2025, our first ever annual report!
This year has been an enormous leap forward for SUCCEED. We have made significant progress in most of the four main activities that we have been focusing on since our origin in 2017 as a group of passionate people brought together by a research grant:
- SUCCEED Tube Training Program
- SUCCEED Tube Feeding Picnic
- SUCCEED Tube Friendly Venues
- SUCCEED Healthcare Innovation and Research
Tube Training Program
The year began with the publication of our “Gold Standard Nasogastric Tube Feed” paper, led by SUCCEED Director Prof. Nick Hopwood. This paper is the first of its kind worldwide, and we are especially proud to see the names of parents and carers of children who tube feed, who do not have previous academic publications or healthcare qualifications, included in the list of co-authors. This is highly aligned with the way SUCCEED values lived experience.
Following the successful pilot of our Tube Training Program in 2024 our volunteers, especially Nick and Director Anna Ierardo, along with me at times, traveled around Australia training clinicians and carers in nasogastric tube feeding. In total we have now delivered our Tube Training Program to more than 150 people in Sydney, Tamworth, Brisbane and Adelaide.
Highlights of the travels included training brand new foster carers in regional Australia, daycare workers in suburban Sydney, and passionate clinicians in Adelaide and Brisbane.
Tube Feeding Picnic
We again welcomed families from around New South Wales and even Queensland to our annual Tube Feeding Picnic. Enormous thanks again go to Anna Ierardo who is our lead organiser for all the picnics. She does an incredible job and the results are always spectacular.
In 2026 we will be exploring how to make these picnics more local and accessible for more families.
Tube Friendly Venues
We did not make much progress with our Tube Friendly Venue program this year. This idea has been warmly received by familes, clinicians and venues and we remain committed to creating a network of places around the world that know just enough about tube feeding to be a welcoming place for children and their carers.
You can read more information about the program here: https://childfeeding.org/tube-friendly/
Healthcare Innovation and Research
Directors Prof. Hopwood and Prof. Dadich have both been engaged in healthcare research based at St George Hospital, Sydney, in collaboration with myself and the amazing clinicians I work with here. There is exciting new work in progress aimed at improving the healthcare experience of children and families while they access hospital-based care.
Congratulations to Anna Ierardo!
No report of the year could be complete without offering Anna our warmest congratulations on being announced as a finalist in the Westfield Local Heroes Competition, 2025! Out of hundreds of applicants, Anna was one of only three finalists at Westfield Miranda. On October 18th she won SUCCEED a $5,000 donation from Westfield.
On behalf of SUCCEED, Anna and I attended a ceremony at Westfield to share our thanks for this generous (and well-deserved for Anna!) award. We also extended our congratulations to the other two finalists who are doing amazing volunteer work in their own communities.
You will see the $5,000 Westfield donation reported in SUCCEED’s 2025-26 financial year report.
Thank you to Anjana Regmi
Just as this report was being prepared, we received written notice of resignation from the Board from our amazing Director and Secretary Anjana Regmi. Anjana has been an incredible supporter and volunteer with SUCCEED since 2018. As well as being our first Secretary she worked tirelessly, with Nick Hopwood, to create “Khushi Meals”, our feeding research and resource for Nepali Families. Thank you Anjana for all your passion, hard work, expertise and encouragement. Anjana will remain a member of SUCCEED so you will still see her around.
Looking Forward
Looking ahead to 2026 it is hard not to feel optimistic about the work and impact that SUCCEED is hoping to achieve. Our immediate strategic priorities are to improve our response time to inbound enquiries about our Tube Training Course and to increase the sophistication of our data handling and administration support. This will allow our volunteers to have better coordination and our community to have more reliable and timely engagement with SUCCEED.
If you would like to join us in any way, please reach out! There is a form on childfeeding.org/contact or email hello@childfeeding.org and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
I wish you and your families a very safe and joyful summer, no matter how you all choose to feed.
Dr Chris Elliot
Chair of the Board
SUCCEED Child Feeding Alliance
