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Victorian cancer fundraiser Vicki Jellie named Australian Local Hero for 2017

9NEWS

January 25, 2017 - 10.11pm

Community fundraising champion Vicki Jellie from Warrnambool, Victoria is Australia's Local Hero 2017.

A Warrnambool woman who made her dying husband’s dream of building a regional cancer centre a reality has been named Australia’s Local Hero for 2017.

After the death of her husband Peter from oesophageal cancer, Vicki Jellie decided to do something about the three-and-a-half hours she regularly spent on the road from Warrnambool to Melbourne to be with him as he underwent radiotherapy treatment.

“The award means our local community in south-west Victoria can celebrate – all their hard work they have put in to make their dream of radiotherapy treatment in the south-west a reality,” Ms Jellie told the TODAY Show.

“It means other communities anywhere in Australia can do something similar.”

Statistics showed that for every 100km a person lived from a treatment facility, there was a six percent less chance of survival - that meant an 18-24 percent chance for Peter.

“He planned a 50^th birthday party which he unfortunately didn’t make. He was going to turn it into a cancer fundraiser to try and improve services in our region. I found his notes after he passed away and decided to see what we could do about it [in September 2008],” Ms Jellie said.

Eight years later, she made his dream come true, raising $30 million from the community and government to open the South West Regional Cancer Centre in Warrnambool.

"It's a big thing, it's fabulous - people travel three and four and five hours and have to stay away from their homes, we were away for 10 weeks," she said.

"People sometimes in our region, actually a third of them, chose not to have the treatment because they didn't want to leave their families or their farms being in a rural-regional area."

Ms Jellie was recognised in the Great Hall of Parliament House last night, accepting her award from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

"No matter where we live in this great country, in a tiny country town or in a city, don't be afraid to step forward and talk about what you believe in and what your dream is,” she said.