Professor Richard Scolyer, the Launceston-born 2024 Australian of the Year who volunteered as “patient zero” in a bid to accelerate brain cancer research, has been farewelled at a state memorial service at the Sydney Opera House.
Scolyer grew up in northern Tasmania, where he was head prefect and dux at Riverside High School before studying medicine at the University of Tasmania in Hobart.
He died aged 59 after fighting an aggressive brain cancer for almost three years, defying a typical survival time of around 12 months.
Just months before his death, he returned to Tasmania to complete the three-day cycling event Tour de Cure alongside his son Matt and brother Mark, raising thousands of dollars for cancer research.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told mourners Scolyer was “without question, one of our brightest stars”.
“A medical revolutionary in the service of humanity, a man of courage, curiosity, generosity and kindness,” Albanese said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns recalled how most Australians first encountered Scolyer.
“Who was this brilliant, stoic man staring down cancer with a smile on his face, all while wearing a T-shirt that said ‘Game on Mole’,” he said.
Scolyer’s friend Jim Finlay, who met him in Launceston in 1984, fought back tears as he delivered the first eulogy.
“I’m one of the lucky few to have known the unprofessional Richard Scolyer,” Finlay said.
“He was simply a bloody good bloke and my best friend.”
Finlay said people often struggled to believe the young, blonde, deeply tanned Scolyer was a doctor, so he would make up jobs, once introducing himself as a SeaWorld dolphin trainer.
Former colleague John Thompson said he hoped it would “ease your sadness a little to know that this sadness is shared by so many people – people in this hall, people around the country and indeed around the world”.
Scolyer’s widow, Katie Nicoll, and their children Emily, Matthew and Lucy delivered the final eulogy.
Singer Kate Miller-Heidke performed The Last Day on Earth, then Peter Garrett and Martin Rotsey of Midnight Oil, Scolyer’s favourite band, performed the song Everybody.
The service closed with three sentences from Scolyer projected on screen.
“Enjoy your life and contribute to the things you are passionate about,” he wrote.
“The questions you ask and the courage you show can change lives.”
Scolyer was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2023 and became the world’s first patient to receive immunotherapy before surgery to remove a brain tumour.
Clinical trials based on his treatment are now under way at Duke University in North Carolina, with a further trial at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne.
