Consumer Advisory Panel

Christine is a consumer advocate and public health professional with lived experience of brain cancer. She was diagnosed with a grade 2 oligodendroglioma in 2024. Since then, she has experienced brain tumour treatment and ongoing care, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and the long-term impacts of living with brain cancer. This experience underpins her focus on improving how research and health systems respond to patient needs.

Alongside her lived experience, Christine has more than 15 years' experience in public health and health policy across government, research, and non-profit organisations. She has held senior roles at the NSW Ministry of Health, Cancer Council Australia, and the Sax Institute, working on cancer control policy, medical research translation, and facilitating better use of research evidence in health system practice and policy.

Christine is passionate about supporting implementation of best practice in consumer involvement in research, policy and service design, approaches to co-production, and upskilling consumer advocates in research systems. She brings an integrated perspective across consumer advocacy, policy, and research, with a focus on improving outcomes and experience for people affected by brain cancer.

I was diagnosed with a Grade 3 Oligodendroglioma in 2013. I under went concurrent radiation and chemotherapy treatment for approximately 5 weeks, followed by 6 cycles (5 days on, 23 days off) of chemotherapy treatment. After 11 years I’m happy to report the tumour is stable. I joined COGNO CAP around 8 years ago as a Consumer Advisor, reviewing upcoming proposed or new clinical trials ensure patients are receiving the best treatment possible.
Aside from my voluntary role at COGNO, I also work in Buying at Kmart Australia in Confectionery. Outside of work, my interests include walking, working out at the gym, and travelling regional, interstate or overseas.

My interest in being a COGNO CAP member stems from both my professional background and my family involvement with brain cancer. I trained in Canada as a psychometrist, and worked in Toronto administering neuropsychological assessments to the clients of a neuropsychologist in private practice, and to in-patients at St Michael’s Hospital. Other roles included implementing rehabilitation programs for adults with traumatic brain injuries, and most recently, as the Accessibility Adviser at James Cook University, Cairns for 15 years, supporting students with a range of disability, injury, illness or health conditions. I am now mostly retired, but do casual editing work for a research centre at Central Queensland University investigating Indigenous health equity and wellbeing.

I have personal lived experience with cancer, both first-person and through my 20-year-old daughter’s diagnosis and treatment for brain cancer (medulloblastoma). She was diagnosed in 2015 and died 18 months later. She had been treated with a paediatric protocol because there were no protocols specifically for young adults with this type of cancer. This gap in the research has fuelled my interest in contributing in whatever way I can to the advancement of brain cancer research in general, and in particular, to treatments targeting the adolescent and young adult population.

My interest in brain cancer and the associated research has been led by my son Callum's diagnosis in 2025 of H3 G34R-DHG. Upon his diagnosis I have actively engaged with clinicians and scientists in the field to better understand his diagnosis and treatment options. This has led to a keen interest in the advancement of treatments, trials and opportunities for the field to knowledge-share and push boundaries to better meet the expectations of patients and families, as well as drive enhanced treatment outcomes that have not been available in recent years.