{"id":946711,"date":"2026-10-30T19:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T19:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946711\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T19:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T19:14:18","slug":"australian-of-the-year-awards-for-wa-recognise-triumph-over-adversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946711\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian of the Year awards for WA recognise triumph over adversity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deeply personal experiences of adversity are behind some of the winners of the 2027 Australian of the Year awards for Western Australia, including a mother whose son lost his sight during the COVID lockdowns.<\/p>\n

Telehealth innovator Esther Oh invented specially designed smart glasses and headsets to help frontline medical staff in remote locations connect with specialised practitioners and AI assisted technology.<\/p>\n

She developed the technology after her own experiences trying to get help for her teenage son.<\/p>\n

The invention, called Agili8, has been used in remote Aboriginal communities, including for a patient who was “was saved from deadly infection and potential amputation in just 15 minutes”, according to the award citation.<\/p>\n

It said the invention came about after her young son became blind because of delayed treatment during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

She was named the Australian of the Year for Western Australia on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Eating disorder work recognised<\/p>\n

Another recipient who turned her lived experience of adversity into something positive was Phoebe Ho, who has worked to help people with eating disorders recover physically and mentally.<\/p>\n

Ms Ho, who has been named 2027 Young Australian of the Year for WA, is a clinical psychologist who has drawn on her own experience of eating disorders to help her patients at the Child and Adolescent Health Service.<\/p>\n

\"Phoebe<\/p>\n

Phoebe Ho won the Young Australian of the Year for WA.\u00a0 (ABC News: Stella McGann)<\/p>\n

“Her lived experience continues to inform her clinical work and research, including exploring the role it can play as a part of a patient’s recovery process,” the citation reads.<\/p>\n

Lifeline volunteer<\/p>\n

Lifeline WA’s longest-serving volunteer, Tina Baldwin, 78, has been honoured with the Senior Australian of the Year award for WA.<\/p>\n

Ms Baldwin, who with her husband Daniel were Lifeline WA’s first volunteer crisis supporters in the mid-1980s, has taken over 33,000 calls from people in desperate situations over more than 40 years.<\/p>\n

“In each case, Tina responds with compassion, openness and a willingness to listen,” her citation reads.<\/p>\n

Indigenous champion<\/p>\n

Binar Indigenous basketball association founder Adam Desmond, 47, has been named WA’s 2027 Local Hero for his vision in setting up the organisation.<\/p>\n

\"Adam<\/p>\n

Adam Desmond was named Local Hero for his work with basketball outreach group Binar.\u00a0 (ABC News: Stella McGann)<\/p>\n

“Today, Binar provides wraparound support through basketball, education, health, mentoring and cultural identity, creating positive pathways for young people both on and off the court,” his citation read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deeply personal experiences of adversity are behind some of the winners of the 2027 Australian of the Year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[514096,514093,64,63,514097,51465,514092,514098,112008,86,514095,1774,85,514094,45],"class_list":["post-946711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adam-desmond","tag-agili8","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-binar","tag-eating-disorders","tag-esther-oh","tag-indigenous-basketball","tag-lifeline","tag-perth-news","tag-senior-australian-of-the-year","tag-smart-glasses","tag-sports","tag-tina-baldwin","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}