In 2012, as Professor Graeme Young admired the façade of a shiny new building perched high on a hill, next to a hospital in Adelaide’s south, he told the throng of onlookers that its rise from the ground was not the end but the beginning. 

“Much hard work is ahead of us and when history judges us, we will be judged by the substance from within, rather than the appearances from without,” he prophesised at the launch of the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer (FCIC) in late April, 2012.

Now, 10 years since this maiden speech, Professor Young – a world-renowned gastroenterologist, Member of the Order of Australia and South Australian Scientist of the Year – can look back with pride as his grand plan for South Australia’s first integrated cancer centre accomplishes all its lofty ambitions, and some.

“It’s been a very strong team effort,” Professor Young says.

“It did start with just a couple of people in one sense, but the people who are now working in the Centre are really responsible for the vision coming to fruition because if the people on the ground didn't do their job well, then our vision wasn't worth a cracker.

“So yes, I'm incredibly proud of what has been achieved, but what I'm most proud of is the people who are working on the ground and making the vision a reality.

In 2012 I said I was acutely aware that the building is not the end, but the start of what is to come.
 
And I'm delighted in the fact that it's not remained just a building – it's now a thriving network of people who are providing the service.

The start of something amazing

Back in 2002, already with two busy jobs running the gastroenterology research group at Flinders University and the clinical service at Flinders Medical Centre’s Department of Gastroenterology, Professor Young was approached by the then Dean of Medicine Professor Lindon Wing, supported by Flinders Foundation CEO Deborah Heithersay, to take on a third job – the mission of creating the FCIC.

It was his focus on cancer prevention that landed him the tough job of convincing the government, his scientific peers, the hospital, the university and the community to back the concept – and pay for it.

“I remember saying to Lindon Wing ‘why do you want me to be the Director of Development?’ and he said, ‘well, you work in cancer prevention and we want to bring cancer prevention into this’.

“They wanted to make sure this wasn’t just ivory tower research in a laboratory that had no clear prospect of a practical outcome, but a true melting pot, if you like, of all the people involved in cancer.”

Convincing with conviction

Professor Young’s name is synonymous with the FCIC – it was very much he who conjured the vision for the Centre, and as he stoically puts it: “I helped the fundraisers with all their arguments that brought the money in”.

In reality it was a long, hard slog to attract the millions of dollars the FCIC needed to get off the ground, and it was his job to present the many submissions to the state and federal governments of the time, and to the nation’s top echelon of cancer research, the Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF).

“It was a frustrating time. The challenge we faced was that it required university and hospital leadership to be absolutely committed, but neither of them had the funding capability to say, ‘okay, here's the money to build the centre’.

“Once we had them on board, we still had to go through the difficulties of getting the funding and we also needed the academic blessing that the people who were going to be working in the centre could deliver when it came to the research side of things.”

Between the state, federal and ACRF contributions, it was still at least five years until the first sod was turned. Those years were filled with massive public appeals spearheaded by the Flinders Foundation.

Professor Young said the Foundation’s campaign for the Centre actually “jolted the state” into action on cancer planning and services.

“A year or two after we launched the whole idea back in about 2004 or 2005, the state realised that it needed a state-wide cancer plan.

“I truly believe the state's vision for a state cancer services network was actually a response to us saying Adelaide has to have cancer centre.”

Mission accomplished

Professor Young says there’s “no question” that the cross-fertilisation of ideas and people within the FCIC has been achieved.

The proof lies in the volume of cancer prevention strategies servicing Adelaide’s southern suburbs, including a program for those at high-risk of bowel cancer that has met the needs of more than 30,000 people in the last decade.

The proof is also in the several hundred publications Professor Young and his teams have produced about bowel cancer prevention through healthy dietary approaches, the way that diet influences the biology of the bowel, and how best to provide screening to the public and high-risk individuals.

Another significant achievement is Professor Young’s internationally-recognised research that led to Australia’s National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) – a free, at-home test for eligible Australians aged 50 to 74 years that detects bowel cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death in Australia. The Australian NBCSP followed the screening model developed by Flinders’ research.

Professor Young has also created networks to deliver next generation bowel cancer screening tests.

Made by Clinical Genomics in collaboration with CSIRO and Flinders University, the potentially life-saving Colvera test was awarded an 'Oscar' of science, the Australian Museum Eureka Prize, in 2017.

As he reflects on the past, Professor Young says he is keen for the future to not only include an expansion of the FCIC, but similar models developed across SA.

“I think the way Flinders has done it has history.

“History will say that this is the right way to do it, the right model for Adelaide.”

In 2011, Professor Young was appointed Professor of Global Gastrointestinal Health at Flinders University while relinquishing his clinical appointments. He retired from the university in 2020, and now holds an emeritus and adjunct position and mentors the active research program at the FCIC