A pancreatic cancer advocate whose husband and father died of the disease within months of each other has been named the 2027 Australian of the Year for Victoria. Cherie Dear and three other Victorians were recognised at a ceremony in Melbourne on Thursday night, the ABC reports.
The four were chosen from 16 Victorian nominees, according to the National Australia Day Council. They now become finalists for the national awards, which will be announced in Canberra on January 25.
Ms Dear co-founded Dare to Hope, a national platform for pancreatic cancer awareness and research, with her husband Paul, a former Hawthorn star who died in July 2022. Her father, Don, died of the same disease four months later.
She went on to set up the Dare to Hope AFL match between Hawthorn and Geelong, now an annual Easter Monday fixture. Her award citation says the game draws more than 80,000 fans and that the volunteer-led organisation now funds three research fellowships. The cancer kills nearly 4,000 Australians each year, the citation says.
National Australia Day Council CEO Carrie Leeson said Ms Dear had "turned personal loss into a determination to find answers to pancreatic cancer".
The Senior Australian of the Year for Victoria is Associate Professor Wenn Lawson, 74, an autistic autism researcher, advocate and author from Warrnambool. He was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager and spent decades in and out of mental health institutions before he was correctly diagnosed with autism at 42. He has since worked as an educational psychologist and social worker and has written 30 books.
Ryan Brigham, from Donvale, is the Young Australian of the Year for Victoria. He founded the charity Health in Focus at 21. The ABC reports it has signed up more than 800 young volunteers across Australasia, south-east Asia and Africa and raised more than $500,000 for health programs. In Victoria, that includes free heart health checks. His citation says his own years of serious illness, including more than 10 operations, shaped his work.
The Local Hero award went to Gavin "Bear" Hynam, 65, a volunteer car mechanic and mentor from Horsham. Through his Cars 4 Youth program he has fixed up and gifted 19 cars to young people facing disadvantage in the Wimmera. He also mentors learner drivers through the L2P program, and his citation says he gives them their first car, with six months' registration, once they have their licence.
Mr Hynam's eldest son, Preston, died in an accident in 2008, just before his 21st birthday. Last year he told the ABC that the work had put "a little bit of spring back in my step".
Ms Leeson said all four recipients were "inspiring examples of how personal experience can drive change".
