The Board of Directors, Staff and Volunteers of the Bone Marrow Donor Institute and Fight Cancer Foundation are saddened to announce the passing of
John Bennet Mathew Opie AM
(April 4, 1941- May 20, 2009)
John Opie AM, President and Chairman of the Bone Marrow Donor Institute (BMDI) and Fight Cancer Foundation, passed away on Wednesday May 20, 2009 after a short illness.
John was a man who was larger than life – he was passionate about everything he did in his life, his career, his community work, but most importantly his family and then his friends.
He was a Chartered Accountant by profession and began his illustrious career with Hungerfords Chartered Accountants where he gained invaluable experience in audit and accounting, during his fourteen years with the firm. He was an astute businessman who seized each new business opportunity to broaden his working career. He saw the opportunities in new technology and began consulting to a wide range of technology based companies. John was a member of many business organisations and was a director, secretary and chairman of numerous private and public companies. In recent times John was a co-owner of Adammo Fresh and Big Wet Spring Water and several other smaller companies.
John was the recipient of several community awards, the Tattersalls Annual Award for Enterprise and Achievement and the Rotary International - Paul Harris Fellow, the Waverley Citizen of the Year, the Sir John Reid Community Service Award, the Australia Day Award, the AMP Victorian Community Service Award and he was recognised in 2002 with an Order of Australia.
John’s community activities were many and varied and included, Treasurer of the RSPCA, Secretary of the Company Directors Association, Secretary of the Arts Access Society, Treasurer of the Productivity Promotion Council of Australia and President and Chairman of the Bone Marrow Donor Institute and Fight Cancer Foundation, which he has guided passionately for the past 20 years.
He was a man of vision and a founding member of BMDI established in 1989 by a group of families who had experienced the devastation of having a child with leukaemia. Their mission was to establish a bone marrow donor registry in Australia. He was the driving force behind this mission and in partnership with the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Red Cross Blood Bank they established the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry. This was the first great vision, where there was previously little hope, now there is a registry of over 170,000 Australians and access to more than 10 million donors worldwide, and more than 8,000 Australian and international patients have been given a second chance of life.
Under John’s visionary leadership, the organisation established the Rotary Bone Marrow Research Centre and the world renowned Bone Marrow Research Laboratories, to search for a cure for leukaemia and other cancers of the blood; The BMDI Cord Blood Bank, one of the most respected Banks in the world, which has over 8,000 cord blood units ready for a life saving transplant, that has so far given a second chance of life to more than 750 young people in Australia and overseas; BMDI Rotary House in North Melbourne for cancer patients who need to be near Melbourne’s major treating hospitals; Fight Cancer Foundation House in Hobart for patients who need to travel to Hobart for treatment; cancer support groups, and projects including the Fight Cancer Back on Track which enables Australian school-aged children living with cancer to continue their education during treatment and recovery and the Fight Cancer Back to Work program, which assists bone marrow and stem cell transplant recipients and their carers to re-enter the workforce following long absences after treatment; and the Ovarian Cancer Early Detection Test released in late 2008, which may also provide early detection tests for Prostate Cancer and Bowel Cancer.
John was an inspiration to his fellow Board Members, Staff, Volunteers and the many whose lives he touched. His passion, vision and tireless energy have been the driving force behind the establishment, growth and success of BMDI and Fight Cancer Foundation. John left his fellow Board Members with many challenges on the drawing board and encouraged all who knew him to put something back into the community, because he felt it was so very rewarding.
John is survived by his wife Kwai Lin, three children, Michael, Karen, Michelle and their partners, Louise, Angus and David, and grand children Eve, Mathew and Nicholas, Jessica and John.
John’s dedication and inspiration provides a lasting legacy of hope and a second chance of life to cancer patients and their families.