Our Ambassadors
Our Patron
Her Excellency Mrs. Linda Hurley
In the course of their married life, Mrs Hurley has supported her husband throughout his career on a wide variety of postings in Australia and overseas, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Malaysia.
Mrs Hurley’s own career in education has been in both the public and private school systems, until her retirement from full time teaching in July 2011. She has been an active member of the community as a Pastoral Carer at the Canberra Hospital and Hospice. Mrs Hurley holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Canberra.
Mrs Hurley has an interest in the Arts, especially music. She is passionate about singing, and showing how singing, especially in a group, can have a positive impact on individuals and the community.
Their Excellencies have three children: Caitlin, Marcus and Amelia, and three grandchildren.
Nathan Charles
Ambassador (NSW)
Nathan is an ambassador for Cystic Fibrosis Australia, providing awareness of the genetic condition and giving hope to those living with it.
Bradley Dryburgh
Ambassador (NSW)
Bradley Dryburgh is a professional speaker, podcast host & marathon runner.
Proving that our perspective towards hardship can foster purpose & develop formidable resilience, Brad ran his first 2 marathons shortly after being rushed to hospital with bleeding lungs, a far cry from the harsh words of a childhood doctor who told Brad’s parents he wouldn’t survive his teenage years.
The lessons learnt in the face of life-threatening adversity is why Bradley considers himself to be ‘blessed with cystic fibrosis’. With a firm belief that choosing to control our perspective & beliefs are the first port of call in a successful life & career, it’s no surprise that Brad has become an in-demand speaker for his ability to draw actionable insights from his own inspiring lived experience.
Jess Ragusa
Ambassador (NSW)
Jess lives with CF, she was diagnosed at birth but never let that stop her.
Jess cultures Burkholderia Cepacia and was given just 6 months to live, but that was over 10 years ago, she is now healthy, well, and thriving.
She is now a mum to a healthy baby boy Cooper and lives her life with her husband James and two furbabies on the Central Coast.
She was a massive advocate for Trikafta to become available on the PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) and truly believes that laughter is the best medicine.
Kyle Collis
Ambassador (SA)
Kyle Collis is one of our South Australian Ambassadors. Kyle was diagnosed with CF at birth.
Kyle is a husband and father to two daughters and although he is busy with full-time work and family life, he is also an inspiration to many in and out of the CF community.
Kyle is an ultra-marathon runner with a couple of 100km runs under his belt and is passionate about health and well-being through fitness and how physical activity plays such an important role in keeping the lungs healthy.
Kyle is also extremely passionate about mental health.
Kelly Lotz
Ambassador (QLD)
“To live life to the fullest is a life well lived”.
Since becoming parents to their second child, Chase who was born with cystic fibrosis, Kelly & her husband, Clayton have lived by the motto ever since.
Brisbane mum, Kelly, proudly advocates for Cystic Fibrosis, because she understand how much it means to live a full life, and believes that regardless of your health and situation, you deserve all that and more.
Learning about such a diagnosis is difficult enough, but Kelly has found that becoming an advocate and raising awareness has helped her and her family become more at ease with their journey while living with cystic fibrosis.
“Once I was able to become open & comfortable enough to talk about our challenges and what life was like, it became much more manageable for us. And I like to hope it helps others, also”.
In the past few years, Kelly’s work, alongside her supportive husband and family, has helped raised thousands of dollars for both Cystic Fibrosis Queensland and Cystic Fibrosis Australia. She has appeared on numerous television shows including Seven + network Adventure Allstars (Charity Global TV), Channel 9’s A Current Affair & Channel 10 News advocating for CF.
“I hope that our presence helps others families in a similar situation and we’ll continue to advocate and support these incredible organisations as we all join the plight to find a cure for cystic fibrosis”.
Mitch Messer
Ambassador (WA)
Mitch has been a health consumer advocate for over 40 years, not only in cystic fibrosis but across many areas of healthcare. He has a passion to see the silos in health care dismantled and replaced with a coherent system that supports consumers.
Mitch has recently stepped down as President of CF Australia and retired from the Board. He is a Trustee of the Australian CF Research Trust. He is a founding member and past Chair of the Heath Consumers’ Council of WA and a past Chair of the Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF).
His current role as Community Involvement Coordinator at Telethon Kids Institute supports and promotes community involvement in research. Working with researchers to ensure that consumers are involved in all aspects of research from basic science to clinical and implementation. Mitch believes it is critical to have community involved throughout the research cycle and not just once a project is already underway. For research to have true value it must be useful and used.
Mitch was a member of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee from 12 years and was involved in the development of the first consumer input process to the PBAC. He has also served a community member of the NHMRC Research Committee and chaired a working committee to review the original Statement on Consumer and Community Involvement in Health and Medical Research.
Lizzie van Dongen
Ambassador (TAS)
Lizzie van Dongen is a musculoskeletal physiotherapist and pilates instructor living with Cystic Fibrosis.
Liz is passionate about helping others live a life unencumbered by disease or injury. She promotes the benefits of exercise, especially for people with CF, to maximise their lung function and sustainably manage their health and wellbeing.
Lizzie is an avid trail runner and has run multiple ultramarathons, including some events that have helped to raise funds for CF Tasmania.
Rory Morgan
Ambassador (QLD)
Live on the peninsula north of Brisbane, Ultra-endurance athlete and coach, Step father, and current paramedic student.
CF lives with me, I don’t live with it.
Ele Williams
Ambassador (ACT)
Elena (Ele) Williams is a higher education consultant and PhD candidate at The Australian National University who has lived with CF since birth.
Having lived and worked between Australia and Indonesia since 2005, Ele is passionate about encouraging young people with CF to continue on to post-secondary study into university and TAFE, and working with CFs and their families to demystify the processes of living, working and studying overseas with CF!
Across her career, Ele has worked in Indonesia with Oxfam Australia, UN Women Indonesia, The Asia Foundation, and between 2013 – 2017 she served as the Indonesia-based Resident Director for The Australian Consortium for ‘In-Country’ Indonesian Studies (ACICIS), managing study abroad programs for Australian university students across Indonesia, including students with equity and access needs.
Ele is passionate about increasing educational opportunities for people living with CF from her own years studying and researching, and also from her many years working with numerous Australian universities to support students. Ele is a regular contributor to Australian and Indonesian media and government advisory groups, and currently serves on the board of DFAT’s Australia-Indonesia Institute and ANU’s Indonesia Institute, and is a panel member for The New Colombo Plan and Australia Awards Indonesia’s selection committees.