‘Not much longer': Professor Richard Scolyer's heartbreaking confession in touching interview with Carrie Bickmore
Australian of the Year Professor Scolyer has bravely insisted that he's 'not given up' following news that his brain cancer has tragically progressed.
Prof Scolyer, 58, was diagnosed with aggressive and incurable glioblastoma in 2023 and was initially given just eight months to live.
However, after undergoing experimental immunotherapy based on melanoma research, his cancer remained at bay for 18 months.
Despite his perseverance, sadly, Prof Scolyer confirmed this week that a recent MRI scan had shown further progression of the tumour on the left side of his brain.
'While this may not be the best direction to be heading with my changes, amazingly (to me), I still seem keen to keep living, loving and having fun, whenever possible,' he wrote on social media.
'I feel like there are quite a few people on my team (including my family & friends) and they make me happy and proud.'
Speaking to Carrie Bickmore on Wednesday on The Hit Network's Carrie & Tommy in a pre-recorded interview, Prof Scolyer insisted that he hasn't given up hope and is determined to stick around for as long as possible.
'I haven't given up,' he said. 'There're still opportunities out there. That's a reflection of many people - and me included. The fact I'm still alive and the three of us are able to have a conversation gives me some hope.'
Prof Scolyer appeared on the show with his partner Katie Nicoll, and during an emotional moment, Bickmore, who has raised more than $24 million for brain cancer research in the last decade thanks to her tireless work, asked the pair to share what they mean to each other.
'Katie is a wonderful person and I'm so proud and happy that she's supporting me as we go through this difficult period,' said a clearly emotional Prof Scolyer. 'Everyone's life only has a set period with one person, make the most of it, Katie, even after I leave this world.'
Ms Nicholl added that she's felt blessed to take on a new outlook on life thanks to her partner's refusal to allow his disease to bring him down.
'I feel so grateful to have shared so many adventures with Rich. We'll all take his adventurous spirit and his zest for trying new things, giving anything a go. I think we call all get something from that.'
Prof Scolyer has been hard at work trying a range of different treatments and therapies in a bid to keep his disease at bay so he can enjoy life with his wife and children for as long as possible. However, life expectancies for brain cancer have tragically remained essentially the same for the last three decades.
'From our perspective as doctors, we understand the disease from the same perspective,' he said. 'But this type of treatment, giving the drugs before the treatment is removed is a big deal. We know from what we've seen in melanoma, if you give these drugs before the tumour is excised, they have a much better effect than if you take the same amount of tumour route and then give the drugs. There's no difference in the type of treatment that you get.
'We saw incredible data that this is much more effective than what you see in novel immunotherapy. From our perspective, we work in this field, it was a no-brainer to me to give it a crack and see if we could make a difference using this technique.'
Nicholl went on to share that there have been some small but noticeable differences in Scolyer's behaviour since his heartbreaking second diagnosis that they recently shared with the public.
'He's a doer when he sees a challenge or something to be done,' she shared. 'All through last year … I didn't see much difference to the old Richard. Since the recurrence … it's just the little memory things that have been a bit more challenging. A bit of tiredness. It's nice to be able to see Richard still give back, get involved, advocate.'
The Australian of the Year recipient went to on to admit that he's full aware and has come to the point of acceptance with knowing that he has little time left.
'I know that I'm not going to be alive longer … to get out to two years, I feel proud that's happened, and I want to make a difference,' he added. 'There are other parts of my life that I love, and I haven't been able to spend as much time in. But other things have been turned around; spending time with Katie and the kids, that's been fantastic.'
To mark the 10-year anniversary of Bickmore's Beanies 4 Brain Cancer charity, the radio star is relaunching the fundraising campaign by taking on one of her biggest personal challenges yet: the Big 5 Marathon in South Africa.
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News.com.au
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2 hours ago
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Professional shooters patrol parks in Canberra in search of persistent pests
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With only physical means to control them at that time, they caused widespread environmental, agricultural and economic destruction. Previous virus releases, like myxomatosis and calicivirus, have brought rabbit numbers down to historic lows. But experts say a new virus is needed every 10 to 15 years as rabbits build immunity. As the effectiveness of the virus fades along with the memory of the destruction rabbits can cause, there are calls to fast-track and fund the next biocontrol. Many Canberrans have noticed rabbits popping up in areas they've never been seen before — veggie gardens, local streets, and the lush lawns of Parliament House. "What we're seeing is what happens when we have enough food and favourable seasons for rabbits," Mr Sweaney said. "Rabbits start spreading and occurring in new places and return to where they already occurred." In a good season, female rabbits can have three litters a year with up to eight rabbits per litter. "Thousands of rabbits can come from few in a very short time," Mr Sweaney said. Mr Gough said the "perfect storm" is a few good years followed by a drought. "While rabbit numbers have been low, after a couple of very good seasons in a lot of Australia and as virus efficacy starts to drop off dramatically, this is going to start being an issue that turns up in the inboxes of politicians," Mr Gough said. Rabbits breed like rabbits, and Mr Gough says to stop rabbit populations from increasing, you need to remove roughly 87 per cent of rabbits in an area each year. Areas that are difficult to treat, or where the rabbits are resistant to the virus, become harbours for rabbits to breed and multiply. Cooperation and coordination are needed to achieve success, but still, even with a Rabbit Control Working Group in the ACT — made up of ACT government departments, the National Capital Authority and the Department of Defence — there are areas that provide the perfect habitat for rabbits. One example is the hedges around Lake Burley Griffin and Kings Avenue Bridge, a space that is making it harder to tackle the problem. "We spend over $500,000 annually on rabbit control across the ACT. That's not including staff time," Mr Sweaney said. "What we want to see more biocontrol in the pipeline, that's what really makes a difference. It's a real battle. We've got a lot of resources put toward rabbit control and there's still a lot of areas we can't get to." While rabbits may appear harmless, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity senior principal research scientist Tanja Strive describes them as a "reverse keystone species" that has a devastating ecological impact far beyond what their size might suggest. Beyond decimating agriculture industries and competing with native animals and plants for resources, large rabbit populations sustain significant numbers of feral cats and foxes, worsening those pest problems. Controlling rabbits, therefore, delivers multiple biodiversity benefits across the landscape. "One way of pulling down the fox numbers long-term is to actually control rabbits," said Dr Strive. "If you do have to prioritise your biodiversity dollars, rabbits are really good targets because by targeting rabbits, you will achieve a lot of really positive impacts in all directions." Dr Strive and her colleagues have been at the forefront of rabbit biocontrol research for decades. Their work focuses on rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), a calicivirus that has been used to successfully manage rabbit populations in Australia since the 1990s, and they are working on the next generation of biocontrol. "It has to be species-specific — obviously, that's the first priority. And it has to be [highly] effective at reducing population, and repeatable," Dr Strive said. She says if the population reaches plague proportions again, not only will it take us back to where we were, but will destroy all the long-term biodiversity gains that have been made by the long-term suppression of rabbits. "It's not about killing lots of rabbits. It's about keeping rabbit numbers low," Dr Strive said. She emphasises that there must also be a vaccine ready to roll out to protect the domestic and farmed rabbit population against any new virus that is developed. Dr Strive suggests that with rabbit numbers at historic lows for a decade, she suspects the issue has dropped down the priority list for funding and public attention. "Biocontrol may have become a victim of its own success because numbers have been at historic lows for 10 years," she said. "It's a bit out of sight, out of mind, and it might have been replaced as a top priority by other equally pressing issues." There's an urgent imperative to develop the next generation of rabbit biocontrols before the current ones lose their effectiveness and Australia faces another rabbit population explosion. "Up to now, we've been supported, we've had industry support for this work, and at the moment, we have federal funding to see us for the next little while, but not to the point where there is a new product ready for this. "It's always a challenge in any field of science. Sustainable long-term funding is a problem." Jack Gough puts it another way, saying "we are always going to be in a race with rabbits" to keep their population down. "We're always going to need new innovations, whether it's new methods to distribute these biocontrols or entirely new biocontrols," Mr Gough said. "If we take our foot off the pedal, which is what's happening right now, we will lose the race." At CSIRO's Black Mountain laboratories in Canberra, Dr Strive and her team are working on new approaches to rabbit biocontrol. These include genetic biocontrol, otherwise known as gene-drives, that could offer alternative, non-lethal methods for rabbit population control in the future. "Gene-drives may be a tool that will get them to eventually breed themselves out of existence, in a very Australian specific manner," Dr Strive said. "But that technology could be decades away. "In the meantime, we need a virus or two or three."
