Simon Waring
Short Form:
Simon Waring has an active palliative care consumer advocate since 2014 and in educating both the public and health professionals has appeared across television, radio, podcasts and presented at national and international seminars and conferences.
Waring brings lived experience of child and adult care as the full-time carer to one of their young sons and also their wife. They are an elected board director of Palliative Care Australia.
Long Form:
Simon Waring is an active palliative care consumer advocate and a board director of Palliative Care Australia. He was most recently the Interim CEO for Palliative Care Australia.
Waring is a member of Palliative Care Australia's National Register of Palliative Care Consumers and Carers (NRPCCC) encouraging consumer engagement in palliative care across Australia. They are a member of Voices For Palliative Care at the Centre For Palliative Care, working in partnership with palliative care researchers to ensure that the patient and carer voice is heard and valued..
Waring was a member of the steering committee for the Paediatric Palliative Care National Action Plan Project (PPCNAPP) July 2020 – June 2023, and chair of the steering committee for the resulting Shaping The Future of Paediatric Palliative Care Project July 2023 - June 2026. Emerging as a recommendation from the National Action Plan Project , The Centre For Research Excellence in Paediatric Palliative Care was established in July 2025. Waring is an AI with the CREPPC project.
Waring brings lived experience of child and adult care as the full-time carer to one of their young sons and also their wife. Diagnosed with neuroblastoma at fifteen months, Waring's son Marmaduke died three years later, just five weeks after their wife succumbed to breast cancer. Building on their lived experience and drawing on their professional experience in marketing and communications, Waring has been an active health consumer representative in adult and paediatric oncology. They have been advocating for both the development of and greater access to palliative care in Australia since 2015.
In educating both the public and health professionals on palliative care, Waring has spoken nationally and internationally at conferences, and co-presented webinars, and seminars.
This includes addressing Senate committees, presenting at the 2018 Societe Internationale d'Oncologie Pediatrique (SIOP) Conference in Kyoto, at the Oceanic Palliative Care Conferences in 2023 and 2025, and developing materials to educate students and staff in universities and hospitals (https://palliativecare.org.au/story/marmadukes-story/), volunteering to support families at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, and publishing about paediatric palliative care in Australia with CI Ekberg, CI Bowers, CI Bradford, CI Hynson, and AI Vickery in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health (https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.15851).
In film, Waring is the presenter of the award-winning 2023 documentary Live The Life You Please promoting awareness of and advocating increased access to palliative care in Australia. Home - Live The Life You Please
Waring has also spoken on palliative care awareness and education on television including SBS Insight, radio and in the podcast Life, Love and Loss https://www.rch.org.au/podcasts/Life,_Love_and_Loss/#season-one
In their work as a Consumer Lead in the Partnering and consumer team at Safer Care Victoria, Waring supported the Partnering in healthcare framework to promote best practice partnering with health consumers in health services. They taught on the SCV Co-Design Now academy, helping educate consumers, clinicians and health service staff on consumer engagement and Co-Design principles and practice.
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