Brave woman who rose above politics

SOMETIMES one person can make a big difference, as Senator Jeannie Ferris who died in Canberra on Monday, proved.

Though hers was not a household name, the South Australian senator and Government Upper House Whip deserves to be remembered for her courageous and successful fight to secure funding for research into gynaecological cancers, one of which ultimately killed her. Jeannie Ferris was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, the so-called silent killer, in 2005 but she did not give in. Instead, she endured a series of treatments with her customary wit and humour and used her influence within Parliament House to ensure politics was put aside to permit a far-reaching Senate inquiry into gynaecological cancers. During that inquiry last October, she sharply focused the attention of her colleagues by telling them she had undergone surgery for ovarian cancer. "On this day last year, I had just begun to learn about gynae cancers, in particular ovarian cancer,'' she said. "At this time last year I had just undergone surgery for ovarian cancer and had joined thousands of women in Australia who are on this, until now, largely silent journey. "It was a steep learning curve for me and one which was at times quite frightening.'' Cancer kills approximately 36,000 Australians each year, accounting for 31 per cent of male deaths and 26 per cent of female deaths annually. As a group of cancers, gynaecological cancers are the third most common form of cancer for Australian women, and the fourth most common form of cancer mortality in Australian women. Last year, the National Health and Medical Research Council provided more than $44 million for research into gynaecological cancers, and the Government has invested heavily in screening for female cancers, notably breast and cervical cancer. The national cervical screening program has been so successful in detecting pre-cancerous abnormalities that the incidence of cervical cancer has fallen by 57 per cent and mortality by 58 per cent over the past decade. Barely five weeks ago, on February 27, Health Minister Tony Abbott responded to that inquiry with a federal grant of $1 million in seed funding to establish a a new centre for the study of women's cancers within Cancer Australia. Ferris, who was first elected to the Senate in 1996, moved the motion calling upon Cancer Australia to continue to build on the work of the now defunct National Cancer Control Initiative that afternoon. Taking no credit for her own role, she said the report was "a very clear example of Senate women coming together to work on an issue''. "All of us saw this issue as being above party politics, an issue important to all women in Australia and their families, including their husbands, their brothers, their fathers and their children,'' she said. She said the committee, under chairman Senator Gary Humphries and with the assistance of professor Neville Hacker from the Royal Women's Hospital, had identified gaps in the opportunities for information to be given to women suffering breast cancer who had not had their own organisation to cope with the difficulties of gynaecological cancers. Of particular concern to her was the fact that half of all women failed to understand that Pap smears do not identify ovarian cancer and that there is still no early warning test for ovarian cancer. "More than anything, this report is an indication that when there was a serious women's health issue and all of us realised that all of our women - never mind what they might do every three years at the ballot box - wanted it dealt with and wanted expert advice and wanted to have a voice, we all got together,'' she said. "That's why we called our report Breaking the Silence, because we believed it was time to break the silence on this issue.'' Finance Minister, Government Senate Leader and fellow South Australian Nick Minchin yesterday paid tribute to Ferris, saying she "was an extraordinary human being who served her nation, her state and her party with great distinction'' and will be sadly missed by her family, her many friends and parliamentary colleagues. "Jeannie endured with typical fortitude her treatment for cancer in 2006, and her return to the Senate last year was courageous and warmly welcomed by all her parliamentary colleagues,'' he said. Before entering Parliament Ferris worked as a journalist for The Canberra Times and was later employed as a lobbyist with the National Farmers Federation and as a political adviser to former Liberal minister Ian McLachlan. During her maiden speech to Parliament she talked at length about the contribution of primary producers to Australia's economy, and praised the involvement of women in Australian politics, noting that women had been given the vote and the right to stand for Parliament in South Australia in 1894. Ferris, who was 66, had two adult sons and was divorced from her husband. As MPs mourned her death, she would no doubt have been pleased Abbott was in Adelaide to see a group of schoolgirls receive the initial Gardasil vaccination against cervical cancer under a $500 million government program.