What do you remember about the early days and the community advocacy behind establishing the Cancer Centre and the Wellness Centre?
In April 2010, the Border’s original bid to be one of ten new regional cancer centres funded across Australia was unsuccessful. Our community was not willing to leave it there.
The late Eric Turner, long-term chair of the Albury Wodonga Cancer Foundation, organised a public meeting at the Commercial Club. It drew 400 people, who heard about the need for a single-site cancer facility for the 1,400 new patients each year, whose treatment was then delivered across different health services in the region. A petition gathered more than 17,000 signatures in three weeks, and a road trip to Canberra was organised.
I joined that trip as deputy editor of The Border Mail. We met the then Minister for Rural and Regional Health, Warren Snowdon, and handed over the petition. We were later told there was no money in the Federal Budget for an Albury-Wodonga centre.
The campaigners were undeterred. I joined a group led by the Foundation and other community campaigners, including Brave Hearts’ Jenny Black, breast care nurse Jodie Hart and Rotary groups, that organised a rally on the Lincoln Causeway in 2010. It culminated in 1,400 people forming a heart, one person for each new cancer diagnosis in the region each year. I remember being among the sea of yellow-poncho-wearing rallygoers who formed the heart and were photographed from a helicopter above. That photograph fronted The Border Mail the next day and remains a stand-out image related to the Cancer Centre's history.
The rally was followed by a revised funding submission from a group including Craig Underhill, which the government accepted.
The idea of the Trust and related wellness centre came a little later. Three years before the centre opened, Eric Turner and Geoff Smith of the Foundation saw the need for a specialised local fundraising organisation to support cancer care, even before the centre opened. They proposed the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre Trust Fund, to provide philanthropic support for equipment, clinical staff education and research, and, most importantly, a wellness centre along the lines of the Olivia Newton-John Centre in Melbourne.
What did it mean to see the Cancer Centre become a reality for our region?
In May 2011, Simon Crean, then Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, announced $65 million in funding for the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre on ABC’s Q&A, which happened to be broadcasting from Wodonga. It felt like a fitting reward for our community’s hard work. Construction began in late 2013, and the centre opened on 16 November 2016.
What role did community support, and organisations such as the Trust, play in bringing the vision to life?
The Trust Fund was formed in August 2013. I was honoured to be its inaugural chair until 2015, and I returned to the board in 2019.
We have been fortunate to have extraordinarily talented, community-minded board members, many of whom have served the maximum 9-year term our constitution allows. Past members include Geoff Smith, John Mollison, Grant Luff, Michelle Hensel, Anne-Marie Humphries, Anthony Liston, Kerry Strauch, Bryan Blake, Jenny Black, Colleen Gorman, Renae Maskell, Narelle Huntley, Bernie Squire, Greg Aplin, Shona Stanton and Peter Tobin. We also remember the late Ray Snell, John Watson and Doug McRae. Our current board is Brad Robertson (chair), Richard Lukins (secretary and deputy chair), Steve Mamouney (treasurer), Tracey Parnell, Kate Hoffensetz, Dr Craig Macleod, Jason Disher, David Baker, Di Thomas and Dr Craig Underhill.
Since its first grant of $29,672 in 2014-15, the Trust has contributed close to $7.375 million to cancer care and services across our region, up to the 2025-26 financial year.
I still remember one of our first fundraising dinners at the Commercial Club. It was on the same day a community campaign for a headspace youth mental health service for Albury Wodonga heard it had won funding. The response to that first dinner was overwhelming, and I shed tears while thanking everyone who had come and supported our first steps into fundraising.
Our community has never faltered in its support for our cancer centre and services, whether campaigning for them to exist or supporting the long-term fundraising needs. Whether a donation is large or small, when we ask our community for support, it always responds.
What does it mean to you to see the centre reach its 10-year milestone and continue supporting local patients and families?
I feel great pride. The community simply gets it. People understand how far-reaching cancer’s impact is, not only on patients and their families but on our wider community. They understand how the funds are raised in our region and remain here to benefit their families, their friends and their neighbours. I have watched the centre being built and developed, and I have watched the Trust grow into one of the strongest charities in our region. To see the centre reach ten years, and to know it continues to support local patients and families, is deeply rewarding. I have always been amazed, but never surprised, by the depth of our community support and how it grows its own solutions to the challenges that arise, whether that’s cancer services or mental health services.