Denise Morcombe wins Sunshine Coast Woman of the Year award
Denise Morcombe has won this publication’s Sunshine Coast Woman of the Year 2025 for her tireless child safety advocacy following the tragic murder of her son Daniel.
Child safety advocate Denise Morcombe has won the Sunshine Coast Woman of the Year 2025.
Mrs Morcombe is the co-founder of The Daniel Morcombe Foundation along with her husband Bruce Morcombe.
The pair started the foundation following the abduction and murder of their 13-year-old son Daniel Morcombe who disappeared from a bus stop in Woombye on December 7 2003.
His bones were found in Beerburrum State Forest in 2011.
The foundation is one of the most well known not-for-profit child safety organisations in Australia.
This publication received more than 30 nominations for Woman of the Year and Mrs Morcombe gleaned about 50 per cent of the vote by the Sunshine Coast Daily readers.
As of May 2025, the foundation had raised more than $20m to allow the free rollout of awareness and education programs to schools.
The foundation has also engaged with parents, children, educators and law enforcement agencies nationwide and conducted thousands of presentations in relation to child safety.
The foundation also hosts a Day for Daniel, which falls on the last Friday in October each year where business or schools can raise awareness for children protection.
In 2024, more than 8000 schools and early learning centres participated in Day for Daniel.
The organisation recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, and released a documentary Don’t Waste It: The Daniel Morcombe Story in tribute of their son.
Daniel’s Law was also passed at the end of October this year where Queenslanders will be able to access the name, photograph and year of birth of pedophiles on a public sex offender register by December.
One of the foundation's next steps will be building a Maleny home to be auctioned and sold in 2026 to raise funds and awareness for child protection.
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