Jessica Evans is one of the thousands of dedicated palliative care staff we recognise on National Palliative Care Week – Cancer Institute NSW

Tracey O’Brien shared a post by Cancer Institute NSW on LinkedIn, adding:

“Our community relies on the care and support so compassionately delivered by NSW’s palliative care teams.

This Palliative Care Week, I’d like to thank people like Jessica who work to bring some peace and comfort to families, at such an incredibly difficult time.”

Quoting Cancer Institute NSW’s post:

“Jessica Evans was so inspired by the impact of palliative care following her husband Connor’s brain cancer diagnosis in 2020, that she left her job in marketing.

Now the office manager of Calvary Mater Newcastle’s Palliative Care Service, where Connor is a patient, Jessica is one of the thousands of dedicated palliative care staff we recognise on National Palliative Care Week.

‘The staff at Concord Repatriation Hospital and Calvary Mater Newcastle have made the unbearable as bearable as possible by making sure my husband is comfortable and has everything he needs, we wouldn’t have been able to get through it without their support,’Jessica said.

‘I feel really grateful to be able to give back, to be kind and compassionate to those who are going through really hard times and make them feel human for five minutes with a normal human interaction.’

The Cancer Institute NSW has information and resources to help people learn about palliative care during cancer.”

Source: Tracey O’Brien/LinkedIn and Cancer Institute NSW/LinkedIn

Tracey O’Brien is the NSW Chief Cancer Officer and CEO of the Cancer Institute NSW, Australia. Before her current role, Tracey was Director of the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital, and Director of the Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program.

Tracey has held numerous high-profile national and international leadership positions, including Advisory Chair, Cancer Australia; V/Chair (Africa, Asia and Australasia) International Centre for Bone Marrow Transplant Research and V/President of the Australian and New Zealand Children’s Oncology Group. In recognition of her exceptional contributions, Tracey was profiled in 2023 as one of the world’s foremost women in paediatric cancer by the International Society of Paediatric Oncology.

In 2019 Tracey was named in the Australian Financial Review’s prestigious Top 10 Women of Influence, winning the Innovation category. In addition to her medical expertise, Tracey has a Master of Law (Health) and executive MBA and serves as a conjoint Professor in Clinical Medicine (UNSW) and Honorary Professor in Science and Engineering (Macquarie University). Dr. O’Brien remains committed to mentoring the next generation of clinician leaders and maintains an active clinical practice in cancer survivorship at Sydney Children’s Hospital.