Ita, 76, was only a little girl growing up in Parsley Bay, Vaucluse when she decided she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her beloved dad who was a war correspondent and editor of the Daily Mirror.

It was almost three decades ago in the midst of an incredible career which had involved founding Cleo magazine and becoming the Women’s Weekly’s youngest ever editor that Ita came to the startling realisation which would change all of their lives.

“One day out of the blue he rang me and said, ‘I can’t find my pyjamas’,” Ita says.

“And so I said, ‘Well, where are you?’ and he said, ‘I’m in Bourke for the conference of course’.

“I rushed to his home and there he was in his kitchen sitting in his pyjamas having a cup of tea.”

Her father, then aged in his early 80s, was soon diagnosed with vascular dementia.

Despite also suffering from vision condition macular degeneration, due to the care of his children and a healthy dose of determination he managed to live independently in his own home until he died just days before his 90th birthday in 1999.

Since leaving her last full time media gig on the Studio 10 panel, there’s no slowing down for Ita.

Centennial Parklands has just asked her to extend her term as trustee which was due to expire in February for another three years.

On Monday she was presented with an Honorary Doctorate by UNSW Chancellor David Gonski for her eminent service in health.

In honour of her dad she is an ambassador for Dementia Australia and Patron of the Macular Disease Foundation.

And it’s for her dear brother Will that Ita is Patron of the Jodi Lee Foundation for bowel cancer.

Ita’s brother Will was only a handful of years older than her. They used to splash around Murray Rose Pool as children when it was still called Redleaf.

“We’d throw bricks onto the bottom of the pool and then dive in and pretend we were surf life savers rescuing them,” Ita recalls.

“I remember if you hung around Watsons Bay on a Friday you could buy snapper for a shilling from the local fishermen.

“My brothers and I would play cowboys and Indians all day and not go home until it was dark.

“There were no locked doors and at night you’d leave the window open so the cat could get out.”

It was Ita’s son Ben’s 30th birthday and the Buttrose clan had thrown a celebratory bash for the scientist.

“I said to Will, ‘My word you’re looking trim, taut and terrific’,” Ita says.

“It turned out he had been going to his GP and telling him he hadn’t been feeling well.

“He had become very slim and after my comment he went back a third time before they tested him and found he had bowel cancer.

“By then he had secondaries. It had spread to his liver and lungs.

“You haven’t got much hope once you get to that point. He was 62 when he died.”

When Ita left Studio 10 earlier this year there was much talk of behind the scenes barbs and wayward brussel sprouts being thrown her way by colleagues including Denise Drysdale.

Ita is renowned for keeping private matters close to her chest and in this case that’s not far off the mark — she’s following her heart.

Her daughter Kate, an architect, has blessed her with two grandchildren: Samantha, 10, and Clare, 8, and their cousins Byron, 10, Elyse, 8, and Jack, 5 belong to her son Ben who is now 45.

“For a while now I’d always kept my own schedule with public speaking and the like so Studio 10 was a bit of a challenge,” Ita says.

“Now, if I want to spend Saturday with my grandchildren I take it off.

“They’re only going to be this little for such a short time. I don’t want to miss it.”

Then there’s the family whose legacy Ita will forever keep alive through her work to raise awareness about dementia, macular degeneration and bowel cancer.

When you consider her words aren’t just echoing the research of experts but the hollow part of her chest her brother and father once occupied they take on an entirely different tone.

Take a bowel cancer screening test every two years from the age of 50. Ask about your family history and discuss this with a doctor.

Don’t ignore symptoms such as a change in bowel habits, bloating, pain or lump in abdomen, unexplained tiredness or weight loss.

If someone with the poise and dignity of Ita can talk unflinchingly about poo then surely you can muster up the courage to do likewise with your doctor.

Face the reality that smoking triples your risk of macular degeneration.

Early detection is critical. Signs include: issues reading, distortion where straight lines appear wavy or bent, difficulty distinguishing faces, dark patches or empty spaces appear in the centre of your vision.

And for goodness sake keep your mind and body active and don’t just write off confusion and personality change as normal parts of the ageing process.

“These days I would be best described as a health advocate. I have always been interested in health issues and believe health is more important than wealth,” Ita says.

And our Ita doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk too including almost daily strolls from her apartment in Moore Park to keep her mind and body healthy.

When the Centennial Park trustee steps foot on the hallowed ground of the east’s favourite slice of serenity, her presence is no less commanding than it was at the glossy magazines where she once reigned supreme.

The very wind seems to calm as she purposely strides through the grass and her golden retriever cross poodle Cleo, named after the magazine, doesn’t put a paw wrong such is her respect and admiration for her mistress.

“Of course I walk my own dog,” Ita says in response to a question about nine-year-old Cleo who showed an admiral level of restraint while other pooches in the park gleefully rolled in who knows what.

“Why wouldn’t I when I live here?

“Centennial Park is like an oasis in the madness of the world when you need a place of calm.”

Nowadays Ita can found presenting awards such as the Australian Mental Health Prize at UNSW last month. As the organisation’s chair, it was her honour to award Emeritus Professor Gavin Andrews of Paddington the top prize for a lifelong commitment to mental health including preparing the first ever set of clinical practice guidelines in psychiatry.

He retired from his role as Professor of Psychiatry at UNSW earlier this year after 60 years of dedication to the field of mental health in which he is considered among the world’s most highly cited scientists for the impact he made on how disorders are diagnosed and treated.

Prof Andrews drew for the prize with Founder and Executive Officer of the Private Mental Health Consumer Carer Network Janne McMahon of South Australia.

Last week, Ita hosted and presented a panel discussion for the University’s Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing which had a record attendance and another 200 seniors on the waiting list.

Ita calls Moore Park home now after downsizing to an apartment eight years ago.

But just like the trees in her beloved park, Ita’s roots in the eastern suburbs run deep.

She was born in Potts Point, grew up in Vaucluse’s Parsley Bay, where Will returned to spend his final years, and raised her children in Paddington.

“I remember when Beppi’s first opened in Darlinghurst (in 1956) my father was editor of the Daily Mirror,” Ita says.

“It was very exciting. My mum and dad were invited to go in and try all these exotic dishes containing ingredients like mussels and pasta and garlic — can you imagine?”

But Ita’s childhood wasn’t all waving her glamorous parents off to swanky soirees.

Some of her earliest memories are of assisting her mother Clare to help out various causes — another legacy which she has continued.

Young Ita was regularly dispatched to sell buttons for war widows charity Legacy and to man market stalls for the Spastic Centre (now known as the Cerebral Palsy Association).

“I remember helping mum raise money for Royal Prince Alfred Hospital standing out the front of Bondi Pavilion with my collection jar,” Ita says.

So whether she’s asking you to look after your brain health or get intimate with your bowel habits, in the immortal words of Cold Chisel who dedicated a song to the media doyenne: “I believe, I believe, in what she says. Yes I do.”

Listen to Ita. It might just save your life.

For more information: jodileefoundation.org.au; dementia.org.au and mdfoundation.com.au