'Extraordinary' $20m gift for new centre

It is the season for giving, and no-one has given more to Australian healthcare in recent years than philanthropists Kay Van Norton Poche and Gregory Poche.

Their latest gift is a $20 million donation to help create a world-leading cancer clinical trials research and development centre at Royal North Shore Hospital and North Shore Private Hospital in Sydney.

The centre aims to enhance global access to clinical trials for cutting-edge cancer therapies and will be established in partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre (MSK) in New York City, a world-leader in cancer research and treatment.

MSK is also home to the world's pre-eminent cancer clinical trials program.

The couple are among Australia's greatest philanthropists, having donated more than $200 million to health and Indigenous development since Mr Poche sold his freight-trucking company in 2003.

"We hope this gift will attract more donors to show their support to help eradicate cancer as a major cause of death," Mrs Van Norton Poche said.

North Shore Private Hospital CEO Richard Ryan said the donation was the biggest in the history of the North Shore campus and the NORTH Foundation.

"The consideration and foresight from the Poche family donation will fuel research opportunities and foster innovative treatments for patients," he said.

Professor Bruce Robinson, chairman of research at North Sydney Local Health District, said the generosity of the gift was "extraordinary".

"This will further increase the ability of cancer patients to participate in clinical trials with a world-class cancer centre in New York City," he said.

The Sydney centre will recruit patients from metropolitan, rural and Indigenous communities to streamline clinical trials and real-world data analyses across diverse populations.

Australia's Ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, announced the gift and the steps towards creating the new centre, at the inaugural Cure4Cancer Conference held recently in New York City.

United States Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, also welcomed the donation and praised the global collaboration between the North Shore campus and MSK.

She said the partnership would contribute towards US President Joe Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative, which aims to reduce the cancer death rate by half within 25 years and improve the lives of people with cancer and cancer survivors.

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