The founder of an internationally successful business screening millions of women for breast cancer across the world has taken home the supreme award at the annual Wellingtonian of the Year Awards.
Ralph Highnam said he was “absolutely staggered” to be named Wellingtonian of the Year at the event on Wednesday night. He also won the business category as the chief science and innovation officer at Volpara Health.
He had dedicated his entire career to “saving families of cancer, in particular breast cancer”, he said.
Over 400 people attended the event at the Embassy Theatre.
Highnam was recognised for his work in early detection and prevention through the AI software development which has become a leader in breast composition assessment, screening more than 13.5 million women across 39 countries.
Philanthropists and multimillionaire property developers Dorothy Spotswood and Sir Mark Dunajtschik won the Jemima Gazley Spirit of Wellington Award.
The award was named in honour of Jemima Gazley who died at the age of 15 in October 2021, just eight months after being diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a malignant aggressive tumour in the brain stem.
Credit: stuff.co.nz
