ABC Newcastle presenter Jill Emberson is facing ovarian cancer. It is terminal.
Jill moved off the morning shift a few years ago to undergo treatment, and this week will tell her story on ABC TV’s Australian Story.
When Emberson was told she had terminal ovarian cancer, she opted to go public and go loud.
She discovered her disease was the most neglected and deadliest of all womens’ cancers and vowed to improve awareness and research funding. Her mission took her from scientific labs, to street protests and to Parliament House in Canberra, where her message finally cut through.
Last year Jill made a podcast about her condition and her struggle, called Still Jill.
“Things did not go quite so smoothly. It took two years of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy to be well enough to seriously consider telling the story as a podcast — a bold move as I’d never made one before.”
Jill tells Australian Story: “I need to be a voice… With ovarian cancer, women like me literally don’t live long enough to form the army of advocates our breast cancer sisters have done so successfully.”
Jill Emberson has presented Mornings on triple j, worked as a reporter on Quantum, been the communications manager at Greenpeace and worked in the finance industry. Most recently, she was the presenter of Mornings at ABC Newcastle. Then, in 2016 she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She returned to work in early 2018 to create Still Jill.
The episode will air this Friday on ABC TV.
