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7.30
Mon 8 Jun 2026 at 8:12pm
The amazing legacy of Professor Richard Scolyer
FIONA WILLAN, REPORTER: In his own words, Richard Scolyer wanted to be remembered as a proud everyday Aussie who “gave it a crack”.
PROF JOHN THOMPSON, MELANOMA INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA: The loss of Richard is not just the loss of a great man, a great scientist, but also the loss of a very good friend.
GARRY MADDOX, FRIEND AND CO-AUTHOR: He was humble, he was caring, he put other people’s lives ahead of his own.
FIONA WILLAN: He grew up in Tasmania where he studied medicine – a career which later took him to Canberra and Sydney.
JOHN THOMPSON: I first met Richard over 30 years ago when he came as a trainee pathologist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. Young, fresh faced, bounding with enthusiasm and obviously even at that stage someone with enormous talent and an inquiring mind.
FIONA WILLAN: He would go on to become one of the world’s leading melanoma pathologists. Working with his colleague Professor Georgina Long to develop a ground-breaking immunotherapy treatment for skin cancer.
GARRY MADDOX: Their work at the institute improving survival rates from 5 per cent to 55 per cent within a decade saved a lot of lives and it saved my life.
JOHN THOMPSON: He was always the boy from Launceston. We went to a very important scientific meeting in Boston on one occasion, and we'd all arrived and everyone was there in their best suits and so on. Richard turned up in shorts and short sleeves, and we said, Richard, this will not do.
FIONA WILLAN: But in 2023, Richard Scolyer collapsed while overseas with his wife and was diagnosed with an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer.
He opened up about his illness as he and Georgina Long accepted the Australian of the Year award, the following year.
RICHARD SCOLYER (2014): I stand here tonight as a terminal brain cancer patient. I am only 57. I don't want to die.
JOHN THOMPSON: I think in his situation, most of us would have closed the curtains, gone inside, and let things take their course, that was not Richard’s way.
FIONA WILLAN: Instead, he decided to become patient zero for a world first experimental brain cancer therapy.
It was based on his team’s award-winning immunotherapy research into melanoma.
RICHARD SCOLYER: I’m more than happy to be the guinea pig to do this. In fact I see it as an opportunity.
JOHN THOMPSON: He understood very well that it could prove fatal. The treatment could well prove fatal, but he was willing to take that risk.
FIONA WILLAN: The cancer researcher shared his journey as a cancer patient on social media as he underwent surgery to remove his tumour.
RICHARD SCOLYER (Social media post): I guess in truth I'm anxious and nervous about how it is going to turn out.
FIONA WILLAN: The early results were promising and for many months there was no sign of the tumour returning.
GEORGINA LONG: I just got news; your scan is fantastic –
RICHARD SCOLYER: That's great news.
FIONA WILLAN: But in March last year, nearly two years after his treatment had started, he learned the cancer was back
A passionate athlete, Richard Scolyer had set himself the lifetime goal of completing 250 parkruns and despite his prognosis, he crossed that finish line in June last year.
In October, he told 7.30 he was grateful for each extra day.
RICHARD SCOLYER: To still be here and be able to function in a way that we can have a chat today fills me with some happiness.
FIONA WILLAN: Earlier this year, clinical trials started in the US as a result of his experience.
JOHN THOMPSON: What he did was advanced research into the treatment of brain tumours probably by 10 years at least.
FIONA WILLAN: The life expectancy for someone with glioblastoma is usually around 12 months. Richard Scolyer’s battle lasted three years.
CHARLES NICOLL, BROTHER-IN-LAW: Yesterday we lost a cherished husband, dad, son, brother and friend and a wonderful Australian.
FIONA WILLAN: And Professor Richard Scolyer penned a final goodbye, in an open letter he wanted published after his death thanking Australians for their support and saying,, “I hope I have in some small way made the road ahead easier and smoother for others.”
GARRY MADDOX: Even in the face of really difficult news, he was prepared to still get out, enjoy life to the fullest. And I think that's an important lesson for all of us.
SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: Sam Mostyn is the Governor-General. She took up the post in 2024, when Richard Scolyer was Australian of the Year.
Governor-General, welcome to 7.30.
SAM MOSTYN, GOVERNOR-GENERAL: Thank you, Sarah.
SARAH FERGUSON: You've described Richard Scolyer’s approach as go for broke bravery. Is that his legacy, not just brilliance in medical science, but also in his attitude?
SAM MOSTYN: I think that describes it perfectly. Sarah. He wrote a letter to all Australians to be read after his passing. I'd encourage everyone watching to read and listen from his own words.
He talks about having a crack. He describes himself as a pretty regular fellow. We know that he wasn't just regular, that he was extraordinary, but he did have a crack, and he also faced into adversity and he did so with humility and compassion.
He did say he didn't think after a cancer diagnosis that that should become the defining moment for anyone and certainly not for him and to keep doing the work. And he wants all of us to mark his passing and his contribution to Australian life by acting with compassion and humility, to following our dreams with a degree of doggedness and curiosity. They are remarkable gifts that Richard has left us.
SARAH FERGUSON: Why do you think those gifts touch so many people in the way they did?
SARAH FERGUSON: I think we knew him and he was very generous and open with his story. We knew how he was going. His family was so generous in sharing with us how he was, and he kept going and he kept talking with incredible optimism and positivity.
I think he gave a lot of people a sense of hope and in the way he faced into his own terrible illness, and I think the way he's left the letter for all Australians to read is why we've been so engaged with him as an Australian and someone who cared deeply about everybody else.
SARAH FERGUSON: Now you are at the MCG having done the Big Freeze, completing a promise to Neale Daniher. Tell me why you made that promise to Neale Daniher, and also did you survive today with your dignity intact, do you think?
SAM MOSTYN: Thank you for that. Well, first of all, I'd probably just start by saying there is something today that links Richard Scolyer and Neale Daniher. They were both Australians of the year. Neale Daniher became the next Australian of the Year after Richard. And both of these men had done things for the country and were both suffering from terrible, terrible illnesses and things that took their life in the end.
Both talk about humility and compassion and selflessness but do so with hope and positivity. So there's something that unites these two men and we've lost both within a fortnight of each other having celebrated them as Australians of the Year.
I got to know Neale from afar when I was on the A FL Commission a long time ago. I probably met him I think through Kevin Sheedy, who described him as one of the best, not just best coach or player, but one of the best people I could meet when I was on the commission to understand football and understand what it meant to live in the life of football and to be good about that and to do it well.
And so I knew him but not deeply. When he came to Canberra on the eve of being announced as Australian of the Year, he was already well into his fight with what he called the beast, MND, and we spent quiet time together.
By this stage, he had lost the power of his voice and all of his communication was through his electronic equipment, but he could still laugh and he could still quip. And before I got up to speak, he asked me to give a ripping speech and make sure it was worthwhile and worthy of the crowd.
And then we started talking about whether I would ever be able to participate in the Big Freeze and to go down the slide and in that kind of context to be seeing his words and hearing a voice that he was activating, saying, would you do it? And almost not quite a challenge, but I'd like you to do that and it would mean a lot.
And in that moment I said to him, I can't say no to Neale Daniher. So it was an honour to slide today. I knew there'd be a risk of some personal embarrassment, but I didn't confuse that with the dignity of my office or the respect for my office.
And I thought about on reflecting on whether it would be the dignity with which Neale conducted himself for 13 years, managing one of the most heinous diseases that takes away all personal autonomy and relies on everybody else. And the dignity that man showed right the way to his death and what he did for all of us and for MND raising $150 million, talking to us about this disease and making us care. I was really proud as Australia's governor-general to represent.
And I think I've been trying to think about this all day, being at the G and seeing almost a hundred thousand people cheering all the sliders on. For me, he's the epitome of Australian community life and what happens when a community gets behind someone and is inspired and we need more of that.
So I'm hoping that it was a little bit of help for MND and for a community that I think needs some optimism at the moment.
SARAH FERGUSON: It makes me think about something you said in your swearing in speech as Governor General. You said, care has a deep and resonant place in our Australian society. I hadn't thought about it until you said that which takes me naturally to the awards, the honours today. What place do they have in a contemporary society? Is that about care now?
SAM MOSTYN: I think so. That's a really lovely way of talking about it, Sarah. I like the way you've just framed that it can be a modern form of care.
I think historically, the Australian honour system is half a century old. And I think over time people lost sight of what it was set up to do in ‘75 and who it was honouring. And I think it fell into a trap of being considered something for the great and the good, or that someone somewhere in Canberra was making decisions about who got medals.
Now, that is not our Australian honours system. It has always started with a nomination from the public with referees and then a team at Government House working for the Council of the Australian Honours System to determine whether those nominations meet the above and beyond test for the honours system.
And I think over time people stopped nominating. They saw people in the lists that probably I thought were just doing their jobs. I don't think that's ever been the case, but it was something that people could reflect upon.
Certainly there weren't enough women in the lists, and we weren't seeing enough of what I would call the heart of our community being nominated and really, really respected for the work that keeps us together.
And that resonant hand of care, I think is what we can return to and I would implore everyone that's listening and watching our conversation to think about who you could nominate and who's not been nominated and why did we not nominate them?
Because it would be my great honour along with the governors around the states to be investing Australians who are really showing care in all of its forms, but often quietly with a lot of humility, don't think they're worthy of it, but they're the people that should be in our honours system.
And I said most recently that I'd love people to look at the honours lists in the next few years and say, I recognise our country through that list.
SARAH FERGUSON: Governor General, I'm glad to see you warm and dry. Thank you very much indeed for joining us to speak about two great men as well as the awards. Thank you.
SAM MOSTYN: It's been a great pleasure. Thanks, Sarah.
Former Australian of the Year Professor Richard Scolyer has died from brain cancer at the age of 59. Fiona Willan reports.
The Governor General of Australia, Sam Mostyn, talks to Sarah Ferguson about his achievements and the great legacy that he will leave.
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