As the mother of Leila, Tracy knows first hand the challenges and lack of understanding that families and friends experience caring for a child with rare cancer.  Through Tracy’s own personal journey she has a wealth of knowledge and experience that she can share with others.
Tracy successfully owned and operated a busy hairdressing salon for over 11 years in Warrnambool, giving her a strong track record in small business.  With long established friendships and contacts and a very supportive community, this gave Tracy the drive to establish a foundation where she knows she can help others experiencing a similar journey.

With over 35 years combined medical administration and management experience, Trish brings enormous knowledge and excellent organisational skills to the Leila Rose Foundation.  This experience includes, staff management and training, recruitment, financial management and general practice management tasks.
Trish first joined the team at Cambourne Clinic in 1977.  At this time, the clinic consisted of two Doctors and three administration staff.  Trish has played an integral role in the expansion of the clinic which now involves five partners, twelve doctors, eight administration staff and eight nurses.
Having grown up in the Warrnambool area, Trish has very strong community and business connections and brings valuable knowledge to the Foundation.
Trish is married with three children and enjoys spending her spare time with family and friends.
Patricia is a founding member of the Board.

A long career as a Real Estate Valuer and Property Consultant has underpinned Roger’s strong belief in honesty and integrity in life and business.  Thus, he is highly respected in his profession and in the community. – valuable attributes for the LRF board.
As a resident of Warrnambool for the past 28 years Roger brings a wealth of community engagement and volunteer experience to the Board being an active member of Rotary (Rotary Club of East Warrnambool – Board member in various capacilities, also Club President), and his Church (Finance and Property Committee).
Roger is a dedicated champion for community service.

Peter has had 35 years’ experience in the Financial and Banking Sector in Warrnambool, Geelong and other townships in Victoria.  He currently holds the position of Agricultural manager for the NAB in Warrnambool.
He has a lifetime of involvement on local boards and committees ranging from Financial, Pastoral, Fund Raising and other wider community groups.  Peter comes from a racing family in Warrnambool and whilst attending school, he was an apprentice jockey and held a 80% win/place ratio.
Peter is married to Sharon and they have 4 children.  Peter enjoys home cooked meals, horse training, events and supporting people to succeed in their activities and pursuits.

Andrew has worked as an accountant for 14 years in Warrnambool at local firm McLaren Hunt where he currently holds the position of Senior Accountant. He completed his Bachelor of Commerce at Deakin Warrnambool before continuing his studies to become a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand. Andrew accepted an invitation to join the board in February 2018 and will provide his finance and business knowledge to the foundation. Andrew is a keen sportsman having spent 18 years playing for the Warrnambool Football Club. He is married to Jessica and has two young children.

Recently semi-retired, Al has had a varied career in New Zealand, Australia and Europe.
Al’s first job was as a Specialist Pharmaceutical Representative for Eli Lilly in New Zealand before joining one of New Zealand’s largest Producer Boards (New Zealand Apple & Pear Marketing Board) and running the International offices worldwide.
Al then went into the Thoroughbred Racing Industry as CEO of The Western Australian Turf Club, then as CEO of The Melbourne Racing Club before returning to New Zealand as CEO of the largest individual NZ Racing Club.
Al and wife Jan have “semi-retired” back to Melbourne and is delighted to be able to support the Leila Rose Foundation as Executive Officer.

Rebecca McCallion joined the foundation in 2023, working in communication, fundraising initiatives and social media. Rebecca has a background in teaching, working in both primary schools and a university. Rebecca works with our Family Support Coordinator, Founders and CEO to communicate the foundation’s mission, values, family stories and events to raise awareness, and to increase and communicate our fundraising efforts with our audience and community.  Rebecca is a mum to three busy children, and enjoys spending time with family and friends.

Susie is a registered Nurse, mother of two adult children, and an indulged Maltese Shitzu pup, Betsy.  Susie’s professional experience has mainly been in paediatrics, and more recently nursing education.  Susie worked for the Leila Rose Foundation over 5 years ago as the Patient Advocate (as it was known then) and reluctantly left due to other commitments. Susie is thrilled to be back working for the foundation, and the opportunity it presents to provide support to families at what could only be described as the worst time of their family life.

Susie believes is a privilege to have this role, and she looks forward to again meeting with families, social workers, researchers, oncologists and others involved in caring for children diagnosed with a rare cancer.

Professor Grant McArthur is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and holds a Ph.D. in Medical Biology. He is the Executive Director of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre; inaugural Lorenzo Galli Chair of Melanoma and Skin Cancers at the University of Melbourne and Senior Principal Research Fellow (NHMRC). He is also Head, Molecular Oncology Laboratory -Cancer Research, and Senior Consultant Medical Oncologist -Cancer Medicine, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Professor McArthur was the inaugural winner of the Translational Research Award of the Foundation Nelia et Amadeo Barletta, held the Sir Edward Dunlop Clinical Cancer Research Fellowship of the Cancer Council of Victoria, won the inaugural Martin Lackmann medal for translational research, and in 2017 he received the Medical Oncology Group of Australia, Novartis Oncology Cancer Achievement Award. He is national and international study co-chair of a number of clinical trials of targeted therapies. Professor McArthur is on the editorial boards of Annals of Oncology, Anti-Cancer Drugs, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the Open Clinical Cancer Journal, Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology and the Journal of Personalised Medicine. He has published over 200 papers including senior or first author publications in many leading global medical journals.

Marc Leishman is one of Australia’s top ranked international golfers.  With his current world ranking in the top twenty, Marc demonstrates all of the attributes of a true sports professional. On top of that he is a devoted family man and a wonderful role model.  Marc and his wife Audrey have established the Begin Again Foundation in The United States, which aims to bring life’s most pressing needs to families experiencing medical and life crises. After a number of years of direct support for the Leila Rose Foundation in Australia we are delighted to formally welcome Marc as a member of our team in his new role as an LRF Ambassador to support our efforts to beat rare childhood cancer.

Dave Hughes is an Australian stand-up comedian, television and radio presenter. Dave originally comes from Warrnambool, that brings a heartfelt connection to his role as ambassador for the Leila Rose Foundation.

“The Leila Rose Foundation does amazing work giving support and hope to families who have a child with a rare cancer. Due to the nature of these rare cancers, these families have difficulty getting information and guidance on their child’s condition, and I am delighted to be able to support the Foundation.” – Dave Hughes

Damien recently retired after an extraordinary career as a jockey. With 3,169 career wins including 129 Group 1 victories Damien is quite rightly considered the “G.O.A.T.” greatest of all time. Damien’s wins include 3 Melbourne Cups, 4 Caulfield Cups and 2 Cox Plates.

“The Leila Rose Foundation does great work giving support and hope to families who have a child with a rare cancer and I am pleased to be able to support them” – Damien Oliver

Jason (Richo) Richardson is one of racing’s foremost authorities and leading racing and sports host presenter. Before his illustrious journalism career Richo was a professional athlete and won the Stawell Gift in 1993. In 1992 Richo won the Novice 100m and in 1994 the Backmarkers Invitational making him one of only two athletes to win all three events in successive years.

“I am pleased to be able to support the Leila Rose Foundation especially given its close connection to Thoroughbred Racing in Victoria” – Jason Richardson

Theo Hnarakis spent 20 years working for News Corp and PMP Communications occupying a variety of managerial roles including managing director of Southdown Press and Pacific publications which included notable titles such as New Idea and TV Week. Theo joined Melbourne IT in 2000 and served as CEO until 2013 growing the listed company into an ASX 300 company with over $200m in revenue and over 700 employees globally. During this time, Theo also served as an Ambassador for the Starlight foundation. Since 2014,  Theo has served on a variety of Technology oriented boards including the listed companies, New Zulu and Crowd Media. He continues to serve as the Non – executive Chairman of ASX listed Dropsuite and and the Private company Provenir.

Matthew Monk has been immersed in Warrnambool and its’ region for most of his life.

Matt finds himself busy year round hosting a breakfast radio show on Coast FM in Warrnambool and owns and manages The Flying Horse Bar & Brewery. While he’s not living his day to day life which includes a busy family of 6, he is travelling the country and overseas as an Emcee with the Mclaren F1 racing team and other official events such as the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival, Vodafone, Zambrero, NT YMCA as well as several charity, sporting and community groups more locally.

Matt is well known to the foundation being a key influence over the Leila Rose All Stars Football game in 2016.

Born and bred in Warrnambool, but recognised at a national level for his great success as an AFL footballer, Jordan Lewis was a very welcome addition to the Leila Rose Foundation when he accepted the role as Ambassador.
When approached by the Board, Jordan’s response was “I would love to help out in any way I can”, and true to his word has been very generous in his support of the foundation.
Jordan became a dad himself in September 2015 so now more than ever understands how important this foundation is in supporting those families of young children diagnosed with rare cancers.

As the uncle of Leila, Justin has served on a voluntary basis to support the foundation’s technical support from website development to administering donations and fundraising events. Justin’s objective is to minimise administrative costs to ensure that we maximise the support provided to our families.
Justin has spent almost 20 years in financial services including various management roles at NAB whilst currently working in Product Management at Xero.
Having 2 young girls of his own, he appreciates the small contribution he makes can have such a significant impact on the foundations families.