Arabic version: تكريم الفائزين بجوائز أسترالي العام في أستراليا الغربية

According to ABC News, deeply personal experiences of adversity helped shape several recipients of the 2027 Australian of the Year awards for Western Australia. Telehealth innovator Esther Oh was named Australian of the Year for WA on Friday night for technology developed after she sought help for her teenage son.

Oh invented Agili8, specially designed smart glasses and headsets intended to help frontline medical staff in remote locations connect with specialised practitioners and AI-assisted technology. Her award citation said the invention followed her young son becoming blind because of delayed treatment during the pandemic. Agili8 has been used in remote Aboriginal communities, including in a case where a patient was saved from deadly infection and potential amputation in 15 minutes, according to the citation.

Clinical psychologist Phoebe Ho was named the 2027 Young Australian of the Year for WA. Ho has drawn on her own experience of eating disorders in her work helping people recover physically and mentally at the Child and Adolescent Health Service. Her citation said her lived experience continues to inform her clinical work and research, including its potential role in a patient’s recovery process.

Tina Baldwin, 78, received the Senior Australian of the Year award for WA. Lifeline WA’s longest-serving volunteer, she and her husband Daniel were the service’s first volunteer crisis supporters in the mid-1980s. Baldwin has taken more than 33,000 calls from people in desperate situations across more than 40 years. Adam Desmond, 47, was named WA’s 2027 Local Hero for founding the Binar Indigenous basketball association, which provides support through basketball, education, health, mentoring and cultural identity for young people.