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Speaker 1: Already and this is the DAILYA, this is the Dailias.

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Speaker 2: Oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to

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Speaker 2: the Daily Os. It's Friday, the fifteenth of November. I'm emma,

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Speaker 2: I'm zara. In January, Professor Richard Scollier was named joint

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Speaker 2: Australian of the Year with his colleague and friend, Professor

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Speaker 2: Georgina Long. The pair were recognized for their pioneering melanoma

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Speaker 2: research which has saved and will continue to save countless

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Speaker 2: lives around the world. Richard has dedicated his life to

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Speaker 2: cancer research and treatment, but eighteen months ago his world

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Speaker 2: was turned upside down when he was diagnosed with brain cancer.

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Speaker 3: Now, we actually spoke to Professor Georgina Long a few

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Speaker 3: months ago here at the Daly OHS, and when I

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Speaker 3: spoke to her, she really described the determination she had

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Speaker 3: to save both her friend and her colleague Rich's life

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Speaker 3: by attempting to treat him with the same breakthrough approach

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Speaker 3: that changed the melanoma field forever.

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Speaker 4: So we were speaking about immunotherapy, using your immune system

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Speaker 4: to kill cancer cells. When I get presented with someone

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Speaker 4: with a bad melanoma that's spread everywhere and it's going

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Speaker 4: to be hard to get the immune system to recognize

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Speaker 4: it and kill it. What do I do then? What

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Speaker 4: are the trials I've done? And I just applied those

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Speaker 4: principles to Richard's tumor. It was scary what I was suggesting.

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Speaker 2: Richard has become patient zero for a groundbreaking immunotherapy treatment,

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Speaker 2: and eighteen months after he was told he had an

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Speaker 2: incurable brain tumor, he is continuing to fight for his

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Speaker 2: future and the lives of brain cancer patients everywhere.

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Speaker 5: Richard, as you're about to.

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Speaker 2: Hear, is an incredible man. His professional accomplishments are too

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Speaker 2: many to even begin to name, but it's his humility,

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Speaker 2: his kindness, his grace that's resonated with so many.

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Speaker 5: Any Australians this year.

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Speaker 2: Here's my chat with joint Australian of the Year Professor

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Speaker 2: Richard Scollier. Professor Richard Scollier, Australian of the Year, Welcome

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Speaker 2: to the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today.

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Speaker 6: Thanks Emma, it's a delight to be here.

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Speaker 5: How are you going. How are things in your world

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Speaker 5: right now?

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Speaker 6: Pretty busy? Yeah, I guess. As Australian of the Year,

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Speaker 6: it's an incredible platform to have to try and help

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Speaker 6: all Australians and meet a whole lot of different people.

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Speaker 6: But for Georgina Long and I that are the Co

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Speaker 6: Australian of the Year. We've been using it as a

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Speaker 6: platform to try and get through a messaging about melanima

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Speaker 6: being our era of expertise, but the messaging about prevention.

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Speaker 6: So prevention is better than cure. So getting through the

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Speaker 6: sun smart messaging to people is really important for all Australians,

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Speaker 6: and I guess particularly for young people, teenagers and young adults.

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Speaker 6: There's a few issues there that we need to keep

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Speaker 6: working on for every generation. And I guess the other

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Speaker 6: thing that's really important for melanoma is if you get

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Speaker 6: it early, most people will be cured. So about ninety

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Speaker 6: to ninety five percent of people are cured. So we

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Speaker 6: want all Australians to know this message, know the skin

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Speaker 6: you're in and if you see something new or changing,

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Speaker 6: go see your doctor and get checked out. So I

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Speaker 6: guess that's what we're using the platform to try and

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Speaker 6: push those messages through, especially to young Australians. Australia has

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Speaker 6: the highest incidence of melanoma in the world. One Australian

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Speaker 6: gets diagnosed every thirty minutes. And despite the breakthroughs that

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Speaker 6: we've had, still one Australian dies every six hours. But

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Speaker 6: most importantly for the audience of your show, it's actually

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Speaker 6: the commonest cancer in twenty to thirty nine year olds

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Speaker 6: in Australia. So yeah, we need to keep that messaging through.

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Speaker 6: And yet started in the ninety eighties, it's happening now.

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Speaker 6: Can I give you one example, and for something that

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Speaker 6: happened a couple of years ago, Georgina and I were

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Speaker 6: speaking at the National Press Club and we raised this

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Speaker 6: issue of I think it's a hashtag that's on It

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Speaker 6: was on TikTok, and it was something like sunburnt tan lines,

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Speaker 6: where people would put a photograph of whether sun burnt too.

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Speaker 6: And I might have the numbers wrong, but it was

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Speaker 6: something like nine hundred million postings had been done with

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Speaker 6: this hashtag and.

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Speaker 5: His tanlines like a badge of honor.

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Speaker 6: Yeah exactly. Yeah, And so we called it out and said, look,

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Speaker 6: we've got to do better in prevention of melanoma. And

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Speaker 6: I didn't think too much of it, but incredibly, the

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Speaker 6: next week TikTok reached out to us and said, we

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Speaker 6: want to do something about this. And ultimately they developed

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Speaker 6: and launched a campaign that's called Tanning That's Cooked, and

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Speaker 6: if you typed in related topics, this would come and

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Speaker 6: you'd have to go through it. So things need to

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Speaker 6: be done, but modernized in a way that gets through people,

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Speaker 6: particularly young people, and is important.

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Speaker 2: It's not every day you hear a positive story about

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Speaker 2: the impact of social media, so that's a really good

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Speaker 2: one to know. In the midst of carrying this Australian

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Speaker 2: of the Amantle, you know, you've been so busy doing

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Speaker 2: all this advocacy work speaking about your research, but you've

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Speaker 2: also been navigating your own life changing diagnosis, one that

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Speaker 2: you've shared very publicly with Australians. What has it been

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Speaker 2: like navigating such a deeply personal challenge in such a

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Speaker 2: public way.

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Speaker 6: Yes, Sorr, I am, I'm getting a bit emotional, but

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Speaker 6: it's been it's been a tough journey. I guess as

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Speaker 6: diagnosed about eighteen months ago, and to end my life

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Speaker 6: and my family's life upside down, and to be diagnosed

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Speaker 6: with a cancer which is supposedly incurable that the worst

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Speaker 6: type of the type of globe last DIMA that I've

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Speaker 6: got is it was devastating and as a as a

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Speaker 6: cancer doctor, as a pathologist and researcher, I understand that

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Speaker 6: these diseases, that the implications of it, and we've talked

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Speaker 6: about melanima the incredible changes that have happened over the

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Speaker 6: last ten or fifteen years. So for people with advanced

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Speaker 6: stage melanoma, which happens in about five percent of people,

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Speaker 6: ten or fifteen years ago, pretty much everyone would die

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Speaker 6: from it, that most people were dead within a year.

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Speaker 6: Five year survival rate was less than five percent, But

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Speaker 6: because of advances, it's now more than fifty percent of

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Speaker 6: people alive at five years, So differences can be made.

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Speaker 6: But then find out you've got a cancer that's at

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Speaker 6: the bottom of the pole or one of the ones

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Speaker 6: that's the bottom of the pile for survival rates is

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Speaker 6: a tough journey to go down. And yeah, the idea

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Speaker 6: of going public with it. I was actually receiving an

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Speaker 6: award and a word had got out in the medicine

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Speaker 6: community that I was having this battle, and the president

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Speaker 6: of Society of the Society reached out to me and said,

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Speaker 6: can I go public with it? And you know, I

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Speaker 6: texted a lot of friends who had been reaching out

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Speaker 6: and it felt felt like the right thing to do

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Speaker 6: for me. I was getting hundreds of text messages every

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Speaker 6: day from friends and colleagues around the world, and so

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Speaker 6: that was one part of it, and the other part

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Speaker 6: of it, I thought, well, I've got three children who

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Speaker 6: to leave a legacy for them to remember what had

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Speaker 6: happened to me. I thought that might be a nice thing,

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Speaker 6: And ultimately it's led to a memoir that I wrote

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Speaker 6: with Gary Madden, who's a herald journalist, that came out

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Speaker 6: a week or two ago. And yeah, tell us more

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Speaker 6: of the story. And I know my kids and many

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Speaker 6: friends and colleagues proud of what they've read in it.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, how could they not be? How could they not

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Speaker 5: be proud?

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Speaker 6: Richard?

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Speaker 2: I do wonder, if you know, being an expert in

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Speaker 2: this field and knowing all that you know, if that

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Speaker 2: makes it easier or harder. Are there times when you

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Speaker 2: just wish you could unknow everything or you go to

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Speaker 2: a place of ignorance? Is bliss or do you feel

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Speaker 2: empowered and motivated by that knowledge?

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Speaker 6: That's a great question, And I think there's actually two

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Speaker 6: sides to the coin. Part of it is it's easy

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Speaker 6: to understand what the diagnosis means and what's likely to happen,

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Speaker 6: what sort of treatment options that are there, and other

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Speaker 6: things that we can do, and understanding the process that

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Speaker 6: you're going through with scans and blood tests, etc. I

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Speaker 6: guess from that side of it it makes it easier. Emotionally,

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Speaker 6: it's it's different for everyone, but yeah, at times it's

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Speaker 6: definitely something that I've found tough to cope with that.

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Speaker 6: I love my life, yeah, every part of it, and

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Speaker 6: not to be able to participate in some parts of

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Speaker 6: it is a downer. But when I think about there's

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Speaker 6: many other patients you're suffering a lot more than what

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Speaker 6: I am at present with my cancer. So you know,

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Speaker 6: I can't complain.

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Speaker 2: I think you can. I'll give you permission to complain.

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Speaker 2: I think the whole of Australia would give you permission

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Speaker 2: to complain. On a more positive note, though you've undergone

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Speaker 2: a new treatment based on your own melanoma research, Can

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Speaker 2: you tell us a little bit about that.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, to put it in context, the sort of cancer

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Speaker 6: that I've got is called glioblastoma, and it's a type

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Speaker 6: of tumor that has like tree roots or tentacles that

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Speaker 6: extend out much throughout your brain and it's virtually impossible

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Speaker 6: to remove or treat all of the tumor, and that's

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Speaker 6: why chemotherapy has been instigated and was used in a

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Speaker 6: clinical trial about twenty years ago, and it was shown

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Speaker 6: for the subtype of brain cancer that I've got, it

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Speaker 6: doubles your survival rate, and for another type of globlast doma,

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Speaker 6: it triples the survival rate, so you know there's benefits

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Speaker 6: in going down that route. But with imminotherapy, the idea

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Speaker 6: is you're trying to stimulate the body's immune system to

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Speaker 6: be able to recognize the cancer cells and knock them off,

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Speaker 6: but leave your normal brain cells alone. And that's why

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Speaker 6: it's so appealing to me in brain cancer. But to

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Speaker 6: go down this route, we know from our research in melon,

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Speaker 6: if you give chemotherapy before the immunotherapy. Chemotherapy suppresses all

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Speaker 6: cells throughout your body, but obviously your cancer cell are

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Speaker 6: the ones you're aiming at, but it also suppresses the

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Speaker 6: immune system. So if you give immunotherapy with chemotherapy, in

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Speaker 6: my mind, the chances of the immunotherapy being effective are less,

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Speaker 6: so it meant forging chemotherapy and in effect dropping my

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Speaker 6: survival time by fifty percent, So it was it was,

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Speaker 6: I guess, a tough decision, and it was my wife

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Speaker 6: was on board, like she knows, she's a doctor too,

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Speaker 6: And Georgina was intimately involved. She's a world leader in

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Speaker 6: immunotherapy and in fact, she was the one who proposed

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Speaker 6: do you want to I say, have a crack, but

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Speaker 6: they're not here words. But with this treatment that we

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Speaker 6: call neoadjuvant combination immunotherapy, which for me, that was a

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Speaker 6: great opportunity and that was something that we do and

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Speaker 6: this is bread and butter for our team. This is

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Speaker 6: you know, what we've done in melanoma and some other cancers.

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Speaker 6: So yeah, that for me, that was something that I

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Speaker 6: wanted to contribute, that the team wanted to contribute to

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Speaker 6: see if we could make a difference.

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Speaker 2: I'm just trying to imagine the decision making process of

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Speaker 2: you know, first of all, you're given this life changing news.

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Speaker 2: Your world is turned upside down. You know the treatments

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Speaker 2: that exist, You understand chemotherapy and how that could extend

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Speaker 2: your life. And this unknown experiment of let's give the

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Speaker 2: immunotherapy route ago, how did you use your lived experience

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Speaker 2: in the field of research to kind of navigate.

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Speaker 6: That We definitely influenced it, but to just make it

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Speaker 6: crystal clear. Georgina is the medical oncologists has driven clinical

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Speaker 6: trials in immunotherapy. I've been involved in too as pathologists

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Speaker 6: reporting the cases, so seeing the changes that imminotherapy can make.

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Speaker 6: She was the one who put on the table and yeah,

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Speaker 6: we both have been heavily involved in this field, so

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Speaker 6: she was supportive to go down this route and for

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Speaker 6: me it felt like the right thing to do.

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Speaker 2: Earlier this year, you shared the milestone news that you've

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Speaker 2: been cancer free for a year.

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Speaker 5: You now have mentioned it's eighteen months.

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Speaker 2: What do those milestone periods mean to you personally? What

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Speaker 2: was that moment like after twelve months to hear that news.

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Speaker 6: I guess just fills me with joy that I'm still

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Speaker 6: around and able to enjoy my life. We're can have

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Speaker 6: a chat like we can today, I guess, you know,

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Speaker 6: I wasn't really expecting that. And the other thing that's

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Speaker 6: really really changed is that I don't know how long

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Speaker 6: I'm going to be here for, but it makes me

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Speaker 6: feel like I still want to contribute to society as

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Speaker 6: I have for decades, but also to enjoy each one

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Speaker 6: of those days, especially with my family and kids have

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Speaker 6: been incredibly supportive of going down this path. There's something

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Speaker 6: that I do remember reading in I think it was

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Speaker 6: BBC and Bloomberg that the standard treatment protocol is called

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Speaker 6: the Stoke protocol after this guy Roger Stook, professor of

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Speaker 6: I think medical cology in Chicago, and he must have

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Speaker 6: been asked about me and the treatment that I had,

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Speaker 6: and he said, if he's alive at six months, even

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Speaker 6: eighteen months, hasn't had a recurrence, then we should get excited. So,

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Speaker 6: you know, it seems to be having an impact around

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Speaker 6: the world, and I hope it does in a way

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Speaker 6: that helps future brain cancer patients.

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Speaker 2: Well, what is next on the research side now that

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Speaker 2: you know it is eighteen months. I'm sure everyone around

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Speaker 2: you is excited, and it would be hard I suppose

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Speaker 2: to kind of walk that line on, you know, being

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Speaker 2: realistic and pragmatic, but also having that hope and enjoy

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Speaker 2: in those milestones.

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Speaker 6: I think for all cancer patients, hope is really important

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Speaker 6: because you could be that outlier on the survival curves

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Speaker 6: who lives for a longer time. And a lot of

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Speaker 6: changes have happened in cancer over the last twenty or

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Speaker 6: so years that have greatly improved outcomes and patients have

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Speaker 6: looked after in different ways, which supports them. So yeah,

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Speaker 6: I think hope is a really important thing for all patients,

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Speaker 6: and I certainly have got that. But the question of

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Speaker 6: whether this treatment's giving me hope for the future or no,

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Speaker 6: one knows the answer to that.

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Speaker 2: And for your ongoing treatment, are you doing anything day

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Speaker 2: to day? Is it just that you know, you're keeping

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Speaker 2: up scans and health checks.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, so that the immunotherapy I had, I had fourteen

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Speaker 6: doses all up, and to be honest, the thing that

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Speaker 6: Georginis are to me on was what's called triple dose

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Speaker 6: combination iminotherapy, and I think that's something that hasn't been

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Speaker 6: used on many cancer patients ever. I think just recently

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Speaker 6: some data was presented on fifty one melanoma patients had

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Speaker 6: had that, and I think roughly half of them had

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Speaker 6: side effects after one dose and had to stop. And

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Speaker 6: I've ended up having fourteen doses, So yeah, I feel

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Speaker 6: fortunate in a way, but that's all stopped now. As

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Speaker 6: far as the treatment of my tumor goes until it recurs,

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Speaker 6: will sit tight. But one of the complications of treatment

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Speaker 6: is that you have epileptic seizures, and yeah, at some

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Speaker 6: stage I've had I think about twenty a day, but

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Speaker 6: I'm on a whole series of drugs to maintain things

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Speaker 6: and we're on a good mix at present, so things

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Speaker 6: are stable.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, we'll be right back with the rest of

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Speaker 2: today's deep dive. But first here's a word from our sponsors.

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Speaker 2: How do you look after yourself when you are sitting tight?

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Speaker 2: You know, to use your own words, you could be,

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Speaker 2: you know, feeling well. The scansa showing positive signs, but mentally,

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Speaker 2: how do you face the challenge of trying to enjoy

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Speaker 2: the most out of every day without feeling like, you know,

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Speaker 2: there could be a shadow behind you about to creep

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Speaker 2: in and change things. That must be extremely hard to navigate.

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Speaker 6: Well, you've worded that so incredibly well, Emma, that that

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Speaker 6: certainly are my feelings, and I don't think I could

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Speaker 6: have been as said that as well as you. It's

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Speaker 6: absolutely true, Or Richard, you can.

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Speaker 5: Do about everything else better than me.

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Speaker 6: And then some for me, the things that I find

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Speaker 6: support me are my family. I like exercising. I find

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Speaker 6: that takes my mind of things. And you know, you've

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Speaker 6: develop friendships with people who you wouldn't normally get a

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Speaker 6: chance to cross paths with. So I like doing that

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Speaker 6: and I like working. I like doing research. But to

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Speaker 6: be honest, how I can do my work now is

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Speaker 6: not the same as what it was before, and I

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Speaker 6: definitely miss that and the interactions that I'd normally have

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Speaker 6: with colleagues whom also my dear close friends. So yeah,

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Speaker 6: it is a tough journey.

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Speaker 2: What about your family, What does family life look like

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Speaker 2: at the moment.

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Speaker 5: How do you guys spend time together? What do you

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Speaker 5: enjoy doing?

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Speaker 6: To be honest, since becoming Australian of the Year, things

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Speaker 6: have been out of control. There's a lot of opportunities

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Speaker 6: but also demands on your time.

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Speaker 2: So is that tough for them? Do they get a

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Speaker 2: bit jealous or annoyed? You know, they want to spend

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Speaker 2: time with you, but you've got to save the world.

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Speaker 6: I don't know if jealous is the right word, but

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Speaker 6: it's definitely having impact, particularly on Lucy. She's just starting

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Speaker 6: year twelve now, and Kate will often a company or

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Speaker 6: usually accompany me when I have to go to different

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Speaker 6: states to do presentations, so it is tough for her

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Speaker 6: and often Matt or Emily that's one of the two

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Speaker 6: older kids who come home and look after her or

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Speaker 6: sort of be there to support her, which is kind.

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Speaker 6: But yeah, it definitely is tough on the whole family,

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Speaker 6: but particularly Katie and Lucy.

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Speaker 5: When you are all together, how do you make the

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Speaker 5: most of that time?

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Speaker 2: Is it movies on the couch, a you all out

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Speaker 2: exercising together?

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Speaker 5: Is there a special place you like going?

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Speaker 6: All different things? One was the start. This year, We've

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Speaker 6: got a pet for the first time, and I've actually

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Speaker 6: been the anti pet person in it. It's always in

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Speaker 6: the family, partly because I love going on holidays with

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Speaker 6: the family. But anyway, so we've got a pet called Chacha,

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Speaker 6: that small dog, and that the family absolutely adores him

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Speaker 6: and he's a great addition to our life.

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Speaker 2: You've reached those milestones, the twelve month mark, the eighteen

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Speaker 2: month mark. But what's next If we caught up in

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Speaker 2: a year or two from now, back here in this studio,

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Speaker 2: what do you want to be telling me that you've

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Speaker 2: done well?

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Speaker 6: First of I hope I am here at that time

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Speaker 6: and I can come back, But I think ultimately it's

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Speaker 6: doing things with my family is going to be my

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Speaker 6: biggest driver over the next period of time, I'm still

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Speaker 6: going to keep working and contributing. I do enjoy doing that.

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Speaker 6: I'm proud of the team of people that I work with,

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Speaker 6: and also the mentoring of staff as they come through

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Speaker 6: the ranks, because if you want to make a difference

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Speaker 6: in the future, you've got to assist people in what

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Speaker 6: they're doing. But obviously that's important for your own kids

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Speaker 6: as well, to try and be there and feel their

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Speaker 6: love and you give it back to them and have fun.

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Speaker 2: Wow, Richard, they are lucky to have you and we

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Speaker 2: are so lucky to have had you as Australian of

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Speaker 2: the Year this year. Thank you for everything that you

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Speaker 2: do and everything you are continuing to do for so

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Speaker 2: many people here in Australia and around the world.

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Speaker 5: Thank you so much for joining us today.

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Speaker 6: Thanks so much, Jimmtte.

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Speaker 2: That's all we've got time for on today's episode of

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Speaker 2: The Daily Oz. Thank you so much for listening. That

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Speaker 2: was such an incredible conversation.

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Speaker 5: And experience meeting Richard.

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Speaker 2: I was so looking forward to it and he absolutely

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Speaker 2: defied all expectations. Everyone says he is a brilliant man,

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Speaker 2: but seeing that up close is something else. I highly

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Speaker 2: recommend you read Richard's book. It's called Brainstorm and it's

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Speaker 2: out now. We will put a link in the show

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Speaker 2: notes if you want to grab that one. Have a

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Speaker 2: brilliant day. We'll be back a little later on this

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Speaker 2: afternoon with the evening headlines.

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Speaker 5: Have a good one.

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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Matdow and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bunjelung Kalgadon woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest

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Speaker 1: Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.