Be part of making it happen.
Ahead of Cancer brings together people with lived experience, health professionals, researchers, patient organisations, government and industry to strengthen Australia's response to inherited cancer risk.
BUILD IT
Partner with ICA to bring lived experience into research, policy and service design.
BACK IT
Stand with ICA and call for inherited cancer risk to become a national priority.
FUND IT
Fund Ahead of Cancer or a specific program to advance prevention and earlier detection.
Let's talk about how you can get involved.
OUR VISION
The work behind the vision
Inherited Cancers Australia has been working to improve recognition of inherited cancer risk through ongoing advocacy, partnerships and engagement with community, healthcare and policy leaders.
Inherited Cancers Awareness Day (ICAD) is one significant milestone in this wider work, bringing people from across sectors together to raise awareness and call for change.
2025 | Our first ICAD
Our first ICAD saw healthcare professionals, policymakers and community supporters, including the Hon Mark Butler MP, help raise awareness of inherited cancer risk.
We also partnered with the Human Genetics Society of Australasia (HGSA) on a joint Position Paper calling for lifelong support, a stronger genetics workforce, and better patient-centred care and evidence.
2026 | Eight organisations, one collective call
Eight cancer organisations came together for ICAD 2026, showing that inherited cancer risk is an issue across cancer types and communities.
As a collective voice, we issued a Joint Awareness Statement calling for greater recognition of inherited cancer risk in Australia's cancer prevention, earlier detection and care.
Building on this momentum
Five programs putting Ahead of Cancer into action
JAN–JUL 2027
The Family Tree Project
Family stories across generations to spark conversations about inherited risk, testing and support.
MAR 2027
Cancer Prevention Forum
A national workshop to identify barriers and develop clearer pathways to prevention and care.
AUG 2027
Cancer Prevention Blueprint
A national roadmap turning lived experience and evidence into policy and funding priorities.
27 AUG 2027
Inherited Cancers Awareness Day
A national campaign to launch the Blueprint and build support for change.
ONGOING 2027
Beyond risk: Data & Insights
A scoping project to identify gaps in national data and inform future inherited cancer prevention efforts.
JANUARY-JULY 2027
The Family Tree Project: making inherited cancer visible
Working with families across Australia, ICA will create visual stories showing how cancer diagnoses, genetic testing and prevention intersect across generations.
Shared through digital storytelling, video, media and selected physical installations, these stories will encourage family conversations, make inherited risk visible and form the creative foundation for Inherited Cancers Awareness Day 2027.
"17 people in my family discovered they have a BRCA1 pathogenic variant that increases their cancer risk.
That's seventeen chances to act early and get ahead of cancer."
– Joe Roff
Former Wallabies and Brumbies player
MARCH 2027
Cancer Prevention Forum: from risk to action
A national workshop bringing people with lived experience, clinicians, researchers, primary care, patient organisations and government together to tackle barriers to inherited cancer prevention.
The Forum will focus on six areas:
- Identifying risk: Finding people and families who may have inherited cancer risk.
- Family testing: Improving access to testing for relatives.
- Access to prevention: Addressing barriers to preventive care and earlier detection.
- Ongoing support: Improving support for people after they discover an inherited cancer risk.
- Primary care: Equipping GPs and other primary care professionals to better support patients.
- Better data: Identifying and addressing gaps in national data.
The goal is to develop practical solutions, clearer pathways to care and a national agenda for change.
“Learning I had a higher cancer risk was scary.
Feeling like I had to piece together my own plan to protect myself was even scarier.”
–Danielle
Living with an ATM pathogenic variant
AUGUST 2027
Cancer Prevention Blueprint: a national roadmap
Building on the Prevention Forum and lived-experience evidence from ICA's Breaking the Cycle survey and report, the Blueprint will identify practical solutions to the barriers people face. It will turn these findings into a national roadmap, with clear policy and funding priorities for improving access to inherited cancer prevention, earlier detection and support.
Five questions shaping the Blueprint:
- Gaps: Where are people falling through the cracks?
- Opportunities: Where could we improve outcomes and reduce costs?
- Solutions: What practical actions are needed?
- Leadership: Who needs to lead and be accountable?
- Collaboration: Who needs to work together?
"At 25, I used $13,000 of my super to pay for risk-reducing surgery.
I'm trying to protect a future I've already had to borrow from.”
–Meg
Living with a BRCA2 pathogenic variant
27 AUGUST 2027
ICAD 2027: public awareness and advocacy
Inherited Cancers Awareness Day (ICAD) will remain the major annual public awareness and advocacy campaign within Ahead of Cancer.
Building on the Family Tree Project, ICAD 2027 will share the experiences of families across Australia, showing how one person's knowledge of inherited cancer risk can create opportunities for others to act earlier.
The campaign will also launch the Cancer Prevention Blueprint and mobilise public and policy support for its recommendations.
Many things run in the family.
Cancer doesn’t have to.
ONGOING
Beyond risk: Data & Insights: building the evidence
What happens after someone discovers they have an inherited cancer risk?
Are they accessing the genetic services, preventive care and support they need? Where are people missing out?
Australia has no national registry and limited data to answer these questions.
Through Beyond Risk, ICA will work with research partners and Familial Cancer Centres to identify what needs to be measured, where the key data gaps exist and how a more consistent national evidence base could be developed. This may include a pilot in one or two clinics to test potential approaches.
The goal is to make gaps in care more visible and build the evidence needed to inform better prevention policy, services and investment.
Better evidence helps us understand what’s working,
what’s missing and what needs to change.
Sarah's daughter, Mikayla, has inherited the same BRCA1 pathogenic variant.
“I can’t change what I’ve passed on. But I can fight to change what happens next.
Our children deserve more than knowing their risk. They deserve every opportunity to act early.”
– Sarah Powell
CEO, Inherited Cancers Australia
Living with a BRCA1 pathogenic variant
Diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer at 29
Let's talk about what we can change together.
Talk to Sarah: sarah@inheritedcancers.org.au