Olivia Newton-John's legacy: ONJ Cancer Wellness & Research Centre

Olivia Newton-John was fearless in her public campaign of living with cancer and dedicated herself to raising awareness and funds.

Olivia Newton-John used her own 30-year battle with cancer to transform the treatment of others and drive the quest for new cures for the condition.

The Grammy Award-winning actor and singer who passed away peacefully, aged 73, raised substantial funds to set up the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre which is part of the Austin Hospital in Melbourne.

And she leaves behind a lasting legacy of cancer research that in the future will transform the treatment of others with the condition.

Both her father and sister Rona died from cancer and Ms Newton-John herself was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992 when she was in her forties. Her cancer returned in 2013.

Chloe Lattanzi, John Easterling and Olivia Newton-John at the ONJ Wellness Walk and Research Run in 2019 in Melbourne. Picture: WireImage

The granddaughter of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, she had a passion for scientific research.

“My dream is that one day the ONJ Centre will only be about Wellness, and we will no longer need cancer centres because cancer will be a thing of the past,” she said.

Researchers at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute are working on a blood test that can tell when breast cancer returns and researchers hope it can be refined to replace the mammogram and detect early breast cancers.

Olivia Newton-John visits the ONJ Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in 2018. Picture: Nicole Cleary

In another breakthrough a recent ONJCRI study found an antibody that can identify and attack glioblastoma brain tumours and human clinical trials expected to begin late next year.

Laura Jenkins one of the ONJCRI’s first honours students is about to begin clinical trials of a breakthrough new treatment for colorectal cancer.

Giovanni Fongaro, who met Olivia Newton-John in late 2017, was happy to tell her one year on he was finally heading home from the ONJ Cancer Wellness and Research Centre. Picture: Nicole Cleary

And Professor Andrew Scott Head from ONJCRI’s is converting oestrogen insensitive tumours, like Triple Negative Breast Cancers, into tumours that have the oestrogen receptor, ultimately making them responsive to existing hormone therapies.

The ONJCRI has more than 140 research studies underway with its scientists involved in up to 200 clinical trials to improve the lives of people living with cancer.

Olivia Newton-John: her life in pictures

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Although Olivia Newton-John suffered from breast cancer her research centre tackles many different types of cancer including brain, bowel, breast, melanoma, gastrointestinal, head and neck, pancreatic, prostate and lung cancer.

Her focus was not just on a cure for cancer but on keeping those with the condition well while they undertook treatment.

On a visit to the ONJ Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in Melbourne’s east in September 2018, Olivia Newton-John met Sharon Mydlar, who had recently had a bone-marrow transplant for myelosibrosis. Picture: Nicole Cleary

Last year, her fundraising event Olivia’s Walk for Wellness raised nearly $350,000 to fund evidence-based wellness therapies at the ONJ Centre that have been proven to help reduce the side effects of cancer treatment and help people cope better during their cancer journey.

“Wellness activities such as yoga, mindfulness, meditation and massage have been very important to me and I feel they have really helped me on my journey. That’s why I want everyone to have this additional support," she said.

Olivia Newton-John inside her cannabis greenhouse in the US.

Newton-John was also an advocate for medicinal cannabis to help people with chronic illness or pain, and lobbied the Australian government to make it more accessible for those in need.

She was a regular user of medicinal cannabis to help relieve the symptoms of her breast cancer, which her husband grows for her in a greenhouse at their ranch in California.

“It was something I wasn’t comfortable with at first because it wasn’t anything I was used to but I started very slowly with tinctures and so you don’t have to smoke anything. It started to give great relief from pain,” Newton-John told News Corp in 2019.

“It has also helped with inflammation and sleep and anxiety and many other benefits we are still discovering. I think they will find cannabis will not only help with disease but will cure it too.”

Tributes for Newton-John have been flowing in, including from researchers.

Brain STEM said: “Today we choose remember Olivia Newton-John who has sadly passed away. Even though she was remembered as a talented and gifted performer, we want to remember the impacts she has made in the world of STEM through the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre which are based here in Melbourne. The cancer research institute is a training ground for the next generation of cancer researchers. We even have been lucky enough to have a research fellow from the institute become a BrainSTEM mentor”.