Snapshots of people and events from the last 70 years.
Doreen Akkerman, Director of our Cancer Information and Support Service, is made a Member of the Order of Australia on Australia Day for her work with cancer patients and their families.
Professor David Hill AM, Director of the Cancer Council, announces that the Cancer Council has invested $175 million in cancer research in its 70-year history.
After her diagnosis with breast cancer, singer Kylie Minogue asks that people donate to the Cancer Council, rather than sending cards and gifts to her.
Professor Emeritus Donald Metcalf's groundbreaking work in colony stimulating factors (CSFs) is honoured by the Cancer Council, which has supported his research for more than 50 years. Four million people worldwide are estimated to have received CSFs as part of their cancer treatment.
Relay For Life, a relay-style fundraising event, is introduced in Australia. The first, single event raised $75,000: it has now grown to include many events around Victoria and Australia and has become the Cancer Council's biggest fundraising event.
An early Relay For Life advertisement
Satirist John Clarke becomes a member of our governing Council. He is also involved in many highly successful anti-smoking campaigns.
President of The Cancer Council Victoria, Mr W Allan Dick AO, is honoured on Australia Day. Mr Dick was President of the Council from 1982 to 2003 and was our longest-serving volunteer, having served since 1955.
A biography of Dr E V Keogh is commissioned by the Cancer Council, to recognise his achievements in the cancer field.
Famed tennis player Pat Cash promotes the Quit message.
The Government makes history by passing the first ever private member's Bill to implement a ban on print advertising of tobacco and tobacco products. This means that there will no longer be cigarette and tobacco advertisements in newspapers and magazines.
Poet Raymond J Bartholomeuz delivers the Quitter's Chant to the then Minister for Health, The Honourable David White, at a Quit Campaign launch. The chant reads, in part, ‘Did you know that Stuyvesant is Dutch for no future?'
Poet Raymond J Bartholomeuz and Minister for Health, Mr David White
A new breast cancer screening project (mammography) is offered to women between the ages of 50 to 69 in the Essendon area. Results from this pilot study mean breast cancer screening will be made available to women throughout Victoria.
The Cancer Council acknowledges the vital work done by over 2000 volunteers throughout the state. Without these dedicated people helping with fundraising, donor mailouts, working in our shops and many other important tasks, the Cancer Council would not have been able to reach its current levels of achievement.
Kylie Mole, a comic creation of Melbourne comedienne Maryanne Fahey, chalks an important health message on a Melbourne footpath.
A message from Kylie Mole
The Cancer Council’s unique Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer becomes internationally recognised. Representatives from Canadian cancer organisations visit the centre to find out how it is run, in hope of setting up a similar organisation in their own country.
A yacht bearing the SunSmart campaign logo is the first over the line in the prestigious Melbourne to Hobart yacht race. Mr John Lake, who owns the boat, agreed to have his yacht renamed to alert people about the importance of protecting your skin to prevent skin cancer.
Dr David McCaughey, Governor of Victoria, opens Health 2000 (now Health 2020), a long-term study by our Cancer Epidemiology Centre that seeks to discover which aspects of health and lifestyle help to protect against cancer.
Years of intense lobbying by the Cancer Council, against strong lobbying from the tobacco industry, finally brings about the introduction of the Tobacco Act.
Minister for Health David White on the steps of Parliament with Victorian schoolchildren
Popular presenter Daryl Somers is a spokesman for the Quitline, encouraging Victorians to take up the challenge to Quit.
Daryl Somers
Dr Graham Giles is appointed Director of the Cancer Epidemiology Centre.
Dr John Colebatch takes over as director of the Victorian Cooperative Oncology Group.
Deaths from cancer of the cervix are shown to be declining, thanks to the establishment 10 years before of the Victorian Cytology Service and the Cancer Council's education program to encourage women to have regular Pap tests.
Warren Mitchell, Fred Parslow and Miriam Karlin appear in several highly entertaining anti-smoking advertisements. Fred Parslow's send-up of the Marlboro Man is not screened by TV stations, who are recipients of large advertising revenues from cigarette manufacturers. [WE HAVE VIDEO]
‘Australia's greatest biologist' Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Nobel Prize winner, appears in advertisements on behalf of the Cancer Council requesting a ban on tobacco advertising on television.
The Cytology Centre by now is examining pap smears at the rate of 80,000 per year.
Football legend Peter Hudson agrees to front an important campaign to help highlight the health risks from smoking.
Dr Nigel Gray becomes Director of the Cancer Council. In the words of former President, W Allan Dick, Dr Gray transformed the Cancer Council ‘from a highly respected medical charity into a cancer control enterprise affecting most Victorians'.
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W Allan Dick |
Dr Nigel Gray |
The Cancer Council produces a pamphlet, Smoking and your health and 80,000 copies are distributed.
Leave it to the chimneys, a 12-minute anti-smoking film, is produced.
The Cancer Council's newsletter has 15,000 readers. This figure has more than quadrupled by 2007.
Sir Edward (‘Weary') Dunlop is elected Vice President of the Cancer Council. The regard in which he is held by Victorians undoubtedly benefits the Cancer Council's fundraising projects.
Another Day, a film exploring the cancer experiences of 11 people, is produced.
The Cancer Council launches a cancer education service directed at migrant communities in Victoria.
Grants from the Cancer Council enable the development of cytological services in city and country hospitals.
A young former volunteer, David Hill, who has been doing some work for the Cancer Council while completing an Arts Degree, is appointed part time assistant to the Education Officer. He will become Education Officer, Director of Education, Deputy Director, foundation Director of the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer and then Cancer Council Director in 2003, earning Masters, PhD, Australian honours and many accolades for his work along the way.
A 60-second TV spot on the seven warning signs of cancer is produced and wins a sectional award at an international film competition: the only non-American film to win an award.
You are not alone, the story of a woman with breast cancer, is developed by the Cancer Council and is shown in commercial cinemas.
The ‘One more river to cross' appeal, so-named because humankind has ‘conquered all the major diseases except cancer', raises more than one million pounds (more than $20 million in today's terms). It is headed by Sir William Kilpatrick, an exceptional fundraiser.
Funding is allocated to Caritas Christi Hospice, with 25 beds to be made permanently available for cancer patients.
The American Surgeon-General, Leroy E Burney, declares the US Public Health Service's official position that the evidence points to a causal relationship between tobacco and lung cancer. From this time, smoking becomes a central focus for the Cancer Council.
Dr TE Lowe is appointed Chairman of the Medical and Scientific Committee and his experience in formulating research policy becomes invaluable.
Donald Metcalf begins his research work as the Carden Fellow, his salary financed out of the accumulated income of the Carden Bequest.
George Frederick Carden bequeaths a capital sum to the Cancer Council, the income from which is to be used to finding the cause and cure of cancer.
The Cancer Council's Executive Committee negotiates to share the costs of buying three deep therapy X-ray machines for the new Central Radiotherapy Institute, which will become the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute. In Sir Peter MacCallum's long association with the Cancer Council he is responsible for many successful initiatives in cancer control in Victoria.
The first grant of ‘Samaritan' funds for cancer patients is made. This kind of assistance will be ongoing, renamed ‘financial assistance’ by 2007.
Dr Charles V Mackay, the first full-time employee of the Cancer Council, produces a booklet, What every adult should know about cancer, the first of many booklets explaining cancer aimed at ordinary Victorians.
The first Victorian cancer registry is set up by Dr Robert Fowler OBE, a leading cancer surgeon and member of the Medical and Scientific Committee. His pioneering work comes to an abrupt halt when he goes on active service as Colonel and it is suspended until he returns in 1945.
Professor Peter MacCallum is elected Chairman of the Medical and Scientific Committee. He will become Chairman of the Executive Committee, retiring in 1962, although the close relationship between the institute named in his honour and the Cancer Council continues today.
In the wake of the Great Depression, with the economy still in recovery, the Cancer Council's first public appeal raises $66,000, equivalent to several million dollars in today's money.
Dr R Kaye Scott, a leading radiologist, is one of the founders of the Cancer Council and is instrumental in having the Central Radiotherapy Institute established.
The Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria becomes an incorporated body by Act of Parliament. Its first meetings are chaired by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne and held at Melbourne's Town Hall.
Peter Hudson
Graham Giles
Daryl Somers
David White with Victorian school children
"Smoking Sux" - says Kylie Mole
Raymond J Bartholomeuz with David White
Pat Cash
A hugely popular relay-style event that raises money for cancer research.
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