JANET Jones, a former Ballarat resident, was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in The Queen\u2019s Birthday Honours List.<\/p>\n
Dr Rimas Liubinas said of her, \u201cJanet has been a friend for 30 years. Her strength and determination sets her apart from most people. In a world where people are consumers or providers, she is a provider who always seems to care for others.\u201d<\/p>\n
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What is your name?<\/strong><\/p>\n Janet Jones<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is your occupation?<\/strong><\/p>\n Until 2018, I worked at the Ballarat Specialist School as a careers, transition and work experience co-ordinator. I resigned when my husband and I moved to Anglesea.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What brought you to Ballarat?<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1987 I married my husband, Peter. He\u2019s a Ballarat boy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For what were you awarded the OAM? <\/strong><\/p>\n For services to life saving, and the community.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What form did your commitment take?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve worked and volunteered in Special Education for 17 years; in childcare supporting vulnerable youth; and I ran a mentoring programme called Kids Hope Australia, which involved training mentors, and mentoring students who were experiencing learning difficulties and needed additional support; and the Ballarat Specialist School in various roles, including helping students to transition into work experience and jobs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is the Starfish Nippers programme which you co-founded with Naomi Symington?<\/strong><\/p>\n It provides kids and young adults with disabilities, an opportunity to learn water skills and beach safety. We started at the Anglesea Surf Life Saving\u00a0 Club, now it\u2019s across Australia, and even overseas.<\/p>\n What has inspired you throughout your life and career?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My husband, Peter, my children, and friends who have supported me with their love through the ups-and-downs of my challenges with cancer, and along the way with my community work.<\/p>\n In my career, it has been John Burt, the former principal of the Ballarat Specialist School.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What inspired you to help raise funds for cancer research?<\/strong><\/p>\n After my first bout of cancer – 32 years ago, I decided I wanted to do something for others in the same situation \u2013 because at the time I thought I was cured! Through family, I met Ballarat\u2019s Gail Elsey who lost her young daughter, Fiona, to a tumour. She was fundraising for research into childhood cancers. Back then it was the Cancer in Kids Association. Now it\u2019s the Fiona Elsey Cancer Research Institute.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What the result of that meeting?<\/strong><\/p>\n In the 1990s, I became involved in funding one researcher under the supervision of Professor George Kannourakis, a children\u2019s oncologist and, as it happens, mine, too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And what happened last summer? <\/strong><\/p>\n I established the 12-kilimetre Lighthouse Classic; a community project to raise funds for a research program to try and shed new light on what causes cancer and how it can be treated more effectively.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is the Lighthouse Classic?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a fundraiser. The idea was to touch a lighthouse, or a monument, in honour of someone who had been touched by cancer. In total, more than 780 people completed the 12 km course during the month of January.<\/p>\n Thanks to the amazing generosity of our supporters, it raised more than $70,000 \u2013 enough to fund a cancer research scientist in Ballarat until the end of 2021; however, the Lighthouse Classic was not just about my cancer. It\u2019s about trying to raise funds so we can find out why people get cancer; how we can stop it; and how we can improve the treatment.<\/p>\n The research aims to help a broad range of patients with leukemia, bowel, ovarian, breast, renal, lung, melanoma and pancreatic, as well as haematological cancers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n