It's an honour to be able to contribute to the discussion of this motion today, and I commend the member for Bonner for bringing it to the House. The reason I wanted to say a few words on this is that I am a stage 3 melanoma survivor. In 2011, just before the New South Wales election campaign, I was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma. It was a secondary which had come from a mole which had been removed seven years prior. It was a very traumatic time—you certainly remember where you were when you got that type of news—and it's a time of great uncertainty for not only cancer patients but also their families.

Within a week of getting that diagnosis, I was in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital having lymph nodes removed. I owe a great debt of gratitude to my doctor at the time, Professor John Thompson from Melanoma Institute Australia. After I'd had the operation, I said to him, 'What are my chances?' and he said, 'Well, it's 50 per cent.' I said, 'Is that a 50 per cent chance of it coming back?' and he said, 'Yes.' I said, 'What happens if it comes back?' and he said, 'There's nothing we'll be able to do.' It was basically a 50 per cent chance of survival—the toss of a coin. He said at that time, 'You've just got to make sure you live long enough for the science to catch up.'

This breakthrough, involving the stage 3 vaccine trial overseen by Professor Georgina Long from Melanoma Institute Australia, which has been announced over the last few days, is unbelievable news for cancer patients, because what medical researchers like Professor Long and, no doubt, the team that is working on this represent is hope for cancer patients, and when you're going through something like that, hope is absolutely everything. So I want to commend all of the cancer researchers and the melanoma researchers not only in Australia but all around the world—because it is a global community—for their really important work in delivering this breakthrough, which decreases the risk of recurrence or death by 42 per cent. As Professor Long has said, this is a transformational breakthrough. The science is catching up. Where previously there was not very much in the arsenal to fight a diagnosis of melanoma, they now have this breakthrough vaccine, which is going to give people life and allow them to spend more time with their families and their friends, and for cancer patients, time is absolutely everything.

To all of the cancer researchers out there I say: you are true community heroes. We want to express our gratitude to you. To all members of our community in the Central West of New South Wales—in particular, our country communities—I say: please get your skin checked. It is something that is very easy to put off, but it can actually save your life. One of the reasons that I wear a straw hat around my electorate is that experience with melanoma all of those years ago. As I have said earlier, I commend the motion to the House.