Jeannie Ferris Cancer Australia Recognition Award 2021

Cancer Australia is pleased to announce Jill Emberson OAM and Professor Karen Canfell as the 2021 recipients of the Jeannie Ferris Cancer Australia Recognition Award.

The Jeannie Ferris Cancer Australia Recognition Award was established by Cancer Australia in 2013, to recognise outstanding contributions to improving outcomes for women with gynaecological cancers.

Jill Emberson has been honoured posthumously with the award in the Members of the Community category for her passionate advocacy for ovarian cancer awareness. An award-winning journalist and radio presenter based in Newcastle NSW, Jill was galvanised to raise awareness and funds for ovarian cancer after her own diagnosis in 2016. In 2018 she created “Still Jill” a podcast that documented her cancer experience. Jill was named Newcastle’s Citizen of the Year in early 2019 for her contribution to journalism and advocacy work.  She died later that year, at the age of 60, four years after her diagnosis.

Professor Karen Canfell has been awarded in the Health Professionals and Researchers category for her outstanding contribution to cervical cancer research. Internationally renowned for her work, Professor Canfell is an epidemiologist and modeller who specialises in cervical cancer prevention. An Adjunct Professor at Sydney University Medical School and Director of the Cancer Research Division at Cancer Council NSW, she also led the first evaluation of scaled-up cervical cancer prevention policies at the global level, which informed World Health Organization (WHO) discussions and their call for global action to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem.

This Award is named in honour of the late Jeannie Ferris, former Senator for South Australia who was passionately committed to raising awareness about gynaecological cancer in Australia. Senator Ferris was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in October 2005 and passed away in April 2007.