The annual TV Week Logie Awards are usually a bit of a drag, to be honest.
There’s the annual confusion over what ‘popular’ and ‘outstanding’ means.
There’s the presenter banter with awful jokes that rarely, if ever, bring a level of laughter beyond what you offer to Uncle Jeff on Christmas Day after a few too many drinks.
There’s the overseas singers we get to perform at an event that is supposed to celebrate Australian entertainment.
The list goes on.
But last Sunday night, Carrie Bickmore produced a Logies moment that will be remembered for a long, long time to come.
Upon winning the Gold Logie, she didn’t thank faceless people in the TV industry who the majority of people watching the telecast have never heard of.
She didn’t thank a long list of castmates or producers, and she certainly didn’t inflate her own ego.
She chose one of television’s biggest stages to make a statement about brain cancer, the terrible disease that claimed her husband’s life in 2010.
Ms Bickmore has a new partner, and a new child, but the pain of losing Greg Lange just after Christmas five years ago has obviously never subsided.
As Ms Bickmore, who hosts ‘The Project’ on Channel 10, said on the night, an average of one person every five hours is diagnosed with brain cancer. Only two in 10 people diagnosed with brain cancer will survive for at least five years.
It is a horrible condition and as Marcella Zemanek wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday, it is horrifying to consider the lack of awareness and funding for brain cancer research.
The incredible social media and mainstream media response to Ms Bickmore’s “Beanies for Brain Cancer” campaign was an incredible example of using star power for the right reasons.
My family is currently dealing with a cancer diagnosis. It’s not brain cancer, but it’s a very serious battle.
Many people, in fact most of us, have been touched by cancer in some way, but until you live on that roller coaster of having yourself or an immediate family member in such a fight, you don’t really appreciate the enormity of what the battle is like.
And I think that’s what touched me in particular with Carrie Bickmore’s speech on Sunday night.
It wasn’t self indulgent, it wasn’t designed to boost her popularity and it wasn’t done for any personal gain.
It was a raw, emotional speech from a woman who has been on the roller coaster.
She also happens to be a celebrity. Cancer does not discriminate.
Next weekend (May 16-17) the annual Relay For Life will be held in Penrith. It is an incredible event that in itself drives home the important message of cancer research, celebrates survivors and remembers those who didn’t make it.
If you’ve never attended before, I’d urge each and every one of you to spend at least part of your weekend down at Howell Oval.
Also here in Penrith, there’s an annual event that raises money specifically for brain cancer research – it’s the Music For Life ball, which will be held on Friday, June 12.
For information and to book a ticket, visit www.musicforlife.net.au.
There’s just two events where local people can play their part in the fight against cancer.
As for Carrie Bickmore, what an outstanding, brave individual.
In a world where we are often determined to be offended, and everything somebody with a profile says is dissected on social media, her decision to do what she did on Sunday night wouldn’t have been an easy one.
What a champion.