15th COGNO Annual Scientific Meeting
Bridge to the Future: Biomarkers in Brain Tumour Care
Sunday 8th October - Tuesday 10th October 2023
Sydney, NSW, Australia
The BTAA Lynette Williams Award to honour the life of Lynette Williams
 Lynette Williams fought bravely for over two years following the diagnosis of a glioblastoma multifome (GBM) Grade 4 in 2015. She succumbed to this hideous disease in April 2017. She had just turned 63. During this time, Lynette and her husband, Billy, were supported and cared for by the Brain Tumour Alliance Australia (BTAA) in Canberra.
Lynette and Billy were just beginning to enjoy the opportunities and variety that retirement offered them. When the diagnosis of a GBM was made, their world was turned upside down as it is for everyone on the receiving end of such devastating news. The hope was that a treatment would arrest the spread of the disease through access to a trial drug or radio-therapy. Sadly, but typically, this was not the case and there were no trials available at that time.
To honour Lynette’s life, Billy, in partnership with the Ghana Australia Association and the BTAA in Canberra, held an event in November 2017 to honour Lynette’s life in support of the work of the BTAA and an orthopaedic centre in Ghana which Lynette had supported when she and Billy lived there.
The event was successful in raising significant funds shared between both organisations. Billy had asked that the funds allocated to BTAA be directed towards a specific activity that involved support and care for brain tumour patients and carers.
Following discussions between BTAA and COGNO in Australia, it was agreed to establish the BTAA Lynette Williams Award for the best poster presentation focused on support and care for brain tumour patients.
‘While the loss of Lynette has had a profound and lasting impact on me and my family, the legacy of Lynette’s life will support the provision of improved levels of support and care for patients with brain tumours’, Billy said.
‘It is also good to know the award will give encouragement to young medical professionals to study and evaluate the impact of the disease, and also to raise the importance of care among medical professionals in oncology and related fields.’
Previous recipients:
2022
- First prize - A/Prof Joanne Shaw for her abstract “Developing a stepped care model for assessing unmet needs in people diagnosed with high grade glioma: defining criteria for stepped care intervention”.
- Second prize - Dr Qichen Zhang for her abstract “Efficacy and Toxicity Profiles of Linear Accelerator - Based Hypofractionated Stereotactic Radiosurgery in the Management of Intact Brain Metastases”.
2021
- First prize - Dr Ken Teng for his abstract “Quality of life, cognition and psychological health in patients with benign and low-grade brain tumours”.
2019
- First prize - Ms Dianne Legge for her abstract "Building the
Bridge: The value of consumer co-design in brain cancer resource
development".
- Second prize - A/Prof Michael Back for his abstract "Reflecting
on survivorship outcomes to aid initial decision-making in patients managed for
IDH-mutated Anaplastic Glioma".
2018
- First prize - Ms Megan Jeon for her abstract "Prevalence and severity of difficulty sleeping in patients with CNS cancer receiving palliative care in Australia".
- Second prize - Miss Lobna Alukaidey for her abstract "Longitudinal health related quality of life in patients with benign and low-grade brain tumours".
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