Wesfarmers donates $5m

Wesfarmers has donated $5 million to the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research to help recruit a leader for what will be the first centre in Western Australia to focus on women’s cancers.

The centre is being established with the help of funding from a 60-kilometre walking event in May, which raised $2.2 million.

Now Wesfarmers has announced the $5 million contribution to establish a Professional Chair of Women’s Cancers at the Harry Perkins Institute, which will be known as the Wesfarmers Chair.

The philanthropic gift was welcomed by the institute’s chairman, Laurence Iffla.

“This gift will enable the appointment of an outstanding scientist to lead the new Perkins Centre for Women’s Cancer Research,” Mr Iffla said.

The institute will soon advertise the position.

Director of the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Professor Peter Leedman, said the centre would focus on ovarian and breast cancer.

He said one in eight women in Australia would be diagnosed with breast cancer while the survival rate for ovarian cancer was less than 20 per cent.

“Further discovery-based medical research will result in more effective and targeted treatments,” Professor Leedman said.