A pancreatic cancer advocate whose husband and father died within months of each other from the disease has been recognised as the 2027 Australian of the Year for Victoria.
Cherie Dear started the national platform for pancreatic awareness and research, Dare to Hope, with her co-founder and husband Paul, a former star Hawthorn player who died in July 2022.
Four months later her father Don died of the same disease.
Ms Dear has since established the Dare to Hope AFL match between Hawthorn and Geelong, which has become an annual Easter Monday tradition and helped raise funds and awareness of pancreatic cancer.
The Melburnian's volunteer-led organisation has also funded three research scholarships.National Australia Day Council CEO Carrie Leeson said Ms Dear had "turned personal loss into a determination to find answers to pancreatic cancer".
Meanwhile, an autistic autism researcher, advocate and author has been named as the Senior Australian of the Year for Victoria.
Associate Professor Wenn Lawson, now 74, was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager, and spent decades in and out of mental health institutions until he was correctly diagnosed with autism at the age of 42.
He has since worked as an educational psychologist and social worker, and undertaken research and advocacy work, including penning 30 books.
