Health

Many gifts from the Glenn Family Foundation have helped individuals with health problems over the years e.g. a dying employee’s son received a scholarship; a British comedienne with a muscular disease was given a special wheelchair. But there have been larger donations made to organisations as well:

China

One of the earliest gifts given by Owen Glenn and his Family Foundation was assisting work with lepers in China-Macau.

Father Luis Ruiz Suárez, a Spanish Jesuit priest arrived in China in 1941. Ten years later he became ill with typhoid and had to leave China, spending time in Macau to recover his health. So began his remarkable charitable work in Macau during the 1950s, ‘60s and ’70s.

Father Luiz was taken by an elderly Chinese priest in 1985 to visit a group of lepers, forsaken in Tai Kam, a small island in the province of Guangdong. Father Ruiz offered assistance to them through the Sisters of St. Anne and within five years their patience,love and affection transformed the centre into one of the best leprosariums in the region.

Father Luiz, now in his late 90s, with the help of the Sisters of St Anne, still oversees the running of 74 leper centres, which care for over 1,200 leprosy patients.

India

The Glenn Family Foundation provided funds for the establishment of a Hospice for HIV/AIDS patients in Kalimpong, providing a bungalow and equipment for their care.

Fiji

In Fiji, Suze Glenn, Owen's daughter, arranged for a breast screening and cervical cancer clinic to be held at Solevu Village. This was not a straightforward process as the Fiji Cancer Society did not have a relocatable/portable mammography machine suitable for use in a remote location. BreastScreen Australia was able to help and the clinic was timed to coincide with a Sports Fundraising Day at Solevu village arranged by the GFF in October 2008.  The plan was that any woman tested who was found to have an abnormality would be sent to the mainland for a mammogram and further tests. 

New Zealand

A Breast Cancer fundraising ball was helped by the Glenn Family Foundation and raised NZ$30,000 from the auction item donated by Owen Glenn of a day aboard his super yacht, Ubiquitous. In addition, free mammograms were offered to 84 women and a further $1,000 was donated at another NZ Cancer Foundation event.