Mathematics isn't usually the first thing that springs to mind when we think of the health of our kids, but for Perth researcher Ami Bebbington it's a vital tool in her personal and professional quest to improve the lives of children everywhere. This is her story...
Last year I lost my younger brother to cancer. He was just 20 years old. Taylor was a very special young man, someone who had faced a lifetime of challenges.
From the moment he was born it was clear that life was going to be a major hurdle for him. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, visual impairment and severe intellectual disability the road ahead was tough for him and my whole family.
I was super-close to Taylor and I miss him greatly. But every day I come into work at The Kids Research Institute Australia and go about researching what makes our kids ill and what we can do to make them better, I'm reminded of my brother and the need to do more.
I've been studying and working at The Kids for 8 years and whilst Taylor wasn't the driving force behind my research career, he certainly has helped me better understand what families need and want to know about child health.
My career began very differently to where I am now. My university days started with a double major in maths and engineering, though I quickly realised that engineering wasn't for me so my focus and my degree shifted onto the number crunching.
I decided to do Honours and that's where my career path took an unusual, yet wonderful turn. It was my work and interest in statistics that first brought me to the institute and where my mathematical and data skills saw me join the Rett Syndrome team at The Kids.
Rett Syndrome is a rare neurological disorder that affects around one in every 10,000 girls born and for which there is no known cure.
I ended up spending five years working with the Rett team before switching to another research project investigating how often kids with an intellectual disability end up going to hospital in comparison to those kids without.
That led me to my current research and the start of my PhD, using statistics and data to investigate why some children survive accidents and others don't.
Many people don't realise the importance of statistics and data in child health research, but if we are going to try to find ways to make kids healthy and keep them healthy we need to understand how many children are being affected by a disease or illness,and any trends in the data we collect.
I know that our family always found some comfort in knowing that there were other families just like ours and other people, just like my brother Taylor, going through what they were going through and the statistics and data helped us to feel less isolated and less powerful.
The more information we knew about the impact and prevalence of his illnesses the more we knew that someone somewhere was working hard towards preventions and cures.
I was asked recently why I chose to work in health research and my answer was simple.
When you have one of the best jobs in the world, and the one that suits you and your priorities best, why do anything else!
My brave little brother might not have led me to this career path, but he has certainly been instrumental in my continuing passion for child health research.
I know that all the work I do is to help as many kids as I can to have a healthy and happy life. That is vital to me.
I'm proud to be a public health researcher and to work at one of the world's best research organisations. We do work to improve the lives of children and families - we're in the business of helping people be healthy and happy.
It's the best business to be in, really. I know it because it makes me happy, and for me, considering everything, that's the greatest thing in the world.