A new VCCC Alliance Leading for Impact Award has been named in honour of dedicated lived experience leader, Les Leckie.
The inaugural Les Leckie Award for Lived Experience Leadership will be presented at the VCCC Alliance Awards on November 5, to an advocate with lived experience of cancer who has demonstrated excellence in leadership.
Les Leckie sadly died in June, 2025. He was a lived experience leader at the VCCC Alliance, and with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and WEHI for many years prior.
Les had experienced both prostate and bladder cancer and lived into his nineties. As a carer, he had also nursed his wife through dementia.
Les’s work as a consumer with Peter Mac led to his involvement with the VCCC Alliance when the new Parkville centre was established.
The inaugural award will be presented to the winner by Les’s family. His daughter, Prashanti Leckie, said the award was a very special honour for their much-loved father.
“We are immensely proud of Dad for the mark he left on those he met, worked and collaborated with,” she said.
“Dad (Les) would have been very surprised and humbled by this significant recognition and tribute to his contribution to the VCCC Alliance,” Ms Leckie said.
“My dad poured his expertise, his experience and his deepest thoughts and commitment into his role with the alliance. Dad cared very much about the pathways and outcomes that he helped to implement,” she said.
“Dad believed in making a difference. Contributing to the VCCC Alliance was a truly sincere and rewarding role for him. As his family, we are deeply touched and happy that he did help make a difference and that this significant award is named after him. This would have meant the world to him.”
Les’s colleague, Deputy Chair of the VCCC Alliance Consumer Advisory Committee, Jo Cockwill, said Les “was a mentor and attentive listener to everybody he met. He was well respected and greatly valued by his many colleagues.”
VCCC Alliance Senior Manager, Consumer Involvement, Dr Joanne Britto said: “Les was the consummate professional who always turned up well-prepared. His generosity, integrity, and collaborative nature are the fabric of our consumer engagement strategy.”
Register to attend the 2025 VCCC Alliance Awards and be part of this special evening.
