Encore: The remarkable life of Professor Richard Scolyer
6/9/202652 min
The former Australian of the Year and pioneering cancer researcher, passed away from brain cancer on Sunday evening.
Richard was a world-leading melanoma pathologist and cancer researcher.
And after his own aggressive brain cancer was diagnosed in 2023, Richard volunteered to be 'patient zero' in an experimental medical approach, which applied some of the discoveries he and his team had made in melanoma treatment.
Richard credited much of his determination, optimism, and humility, to his childhood in Tasmania.
Sarah spoke with Richard in 2024
Further Information
Richard's memoir is called Brainstorm
This episode of Conversations explores cancer research, melanoma treatment, brain tumour, neurosurgery, recovery. radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, Australian of the Year, death, grief, terminal illness, pioneering research, family.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSarah Kanowski· Host0:00
Former Australian of the Year, Richard Scolyer, passed away on Sunday night, aged fifty-nine. The aggressive brain cancer that Richard had been fighting with experimental immunotherapy for two years returned in March last year. I spoke with Richard for Conversations in late 2024. He was so lovely, humble, but determined, and full of gratitude to his family and medical colleagues. A truly remarkable Australian. And we're bringing you that conversation again today.
Richard Scolyer· Guest0:34
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Sarah Kanowski· Host0:41
When Richard Scolyer and his friend and colleague Georgina Long were announced as joint 2024 Australian of the Year, Richard took to the stage in Canberra and said this in his acceptance speech: "I stand here tonight as a terminal brain cancer patient. I'm only fifty-seven. I don't want to die." Just ten months earlier, Richard had gone from being one of the world's leading melanoma researchers and pathologists to a cancer patient himself. After collapsing in a hotel room in Poland, a golf ball-sized tumor was discovered in his brain, and at the time, the prognosis was dire. It was likely that Richard would be dead within a matter of months. But then