The Adamo and Francesca Boncardo Early Career Research Fellowship in Pancreatic Cancer will be implemented at Sydney University’s School of Medicine for a period of three years, with research undertaken by pancreatic cancer surgeon specialists Dr Anubhav Mittal and Prof. Jaswinder Samra.
The fellowship will encourage much-needed research in an important area of knowledge.
In 2015, there were 2760 deaths resulting from pancreatic cancer in Australia.
There is currently no known cure.
The Boncardo name is familiar to university scholarship departments, where Gaetano Boncardo established the Adamo and Francesca Boncardo Equity Scholarships in 2016.
Equity scholarships assist students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.
This semester, eight equity scholarships were awarded at the University of NSW, while four were awarded at Sydney University.
Boncardo named the scholarships in honour of his parents, who made many sacrifices for their children’s futures.
“Ultimately it’s their work and their sweat which has paid off today,” he said.
Adamo and Francesca Boncardo immigrated to Granville from Sicily in 1952, before establishing a market garden in Kellyville.
They harvested vegetables and sold produce in the city.
Appreciation was expressed at Sydney University’s Founders’ Circle ceremony last week, which honoured 12 benefactors to the university.
Boncardo completed his degree in civil engineering on a Commonwealth scholarship more than four decades ago.
“The reality is, if I hadn’t been given that scholarship in 1971, I wouldn’t have been able to go,” he said.
He was the first in his family to attend university.
