JAN Savage says she was overcome by emotion when she stepped on to the podium at the Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday night to accept her award.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mrs Savage was named the most influential woman in Australia in the field of philanthropy, in the 2014 Financial Review and Westpac 100 women of Influence awards.
“I arrived not knowing any the women I was sitting with on my table but they all cheered and hugged me when it was announced.
“It was an amazing experience to be in the same room with all those women who have made such contributions to the Australian way of life,” Mrs Savage said.
“But winning this award is not about me - it is about all the people who have helped out in any way to raise funds for better cancer services in the region,” Mrs Savage said.
Mrs Savage has been at the forefront of a lobbying and fundraising effort to convince the state and federal governments to fund linear accelerators to be based in Orange and to raise the money to build the $5.4 million Western Care Lodge located in the hospital grounds just a couple of hundred metres from radiotherapy treatment.
“I was so moved on the night by the women who came up to me - women I didn’t know and told me of their own personal experiences with cancer,” she said.
Mrs Savage said the award and the encouragement she received on Wednesday night has now steeled her resolve to continue on the quest for improved cancer services for men and women living in the region.