The People Behind S.O.S.

Vivienne Harkness

Vivienne is the founder and president of S.O.S, she was a carer for her husband who had suffered a severe stroke. Vivienne firmly believes that the awareness of stroke and its preventions should be increased within Australia. She was originally a primary school teacher, Vivienne has worked for over 40 years in the not for profit sector, specialising in major national events. These include bringing Red Nose Day to Australia and directing it for its first 3 years.

Brendan Reilly

Brendan is a senior commercial and disputes lawyer with Parke Lawyers. He has a background in the not-for-profit sector having been Executive Officer of a state-wide disability organisation in the 1990s. He is committed to reducing the debilitating impacts of stroke in our community.

Caroline White

Darcy Murray

Darcy is a trained HR professional who specialises in Learning and Development. She is passionate about giving back to the community by volunteering as the Secretary of the Stroke out Stroke campaign by assisting the campaign president in managing the administrative processes. She has personal been impacted by stroke as both of her immediate and extended family members, have been affected by stroke. Darcy believes that is an important cause and is honored to be part of the SOS committee group.

Jessica Freeman

Melissa Rixon

Melissa is a physiotherapist primarily based at Royal Melbourne Hospital in the acute stroke unit. She has had experience working with stroke patients for the last 3 years and unfortunately seen the affects that stroke has not only the stroke survivor but also their family. She is passionate about reducing the prevalence of stroke and increasing awareness about this condition worldwide. She believes she is very fortunate to be a part of these inspiring volunteers at Strike Out Stroke.

Ashima Gupta

Ash is a physiotherapist with over 14 years of experience in the public hospital sector. She has specialised skills in Emergency care and also held a number of project lead and management positions at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. Ash is passionate about ensuring that patients receive high-quality, patient-centred and collaborative care, both in and out of hospital. She has witnessed, first hand, the devastating immediate and long-term impacts of stroke both professionally and personally and is therefore passionate about striking out stroke.

Ben Utting

Ben Utting is the Sport Development Manager at Softball Australia whose focus is on designing physical activity programs to encourage children to build a healthy lifestyle through participation in fun and engaging activities.   A former professional athlete, personal trainer and coach, his role at SOS is to create student activities that help educate them about the signs and symptoms of stroke.

Francesca Franich

Francesca is currently studying Public Relations and Social Media at Swinburne University of Technology and volunteers as our digital media coordinator. Francesca takes care of our social media pages and helps to create content used for social media platforms.

Ramila Clugston

Ramila brings to S.O.S her experience from a research background, project management, communications and change management. Ramila is responsible for creating the creative online educational content on the S.O.S website.

Karen Overall

Karen has been an educator for over 30 years with the last 11 years as Principal of two specialist schools. Having two close family members impacted by stroke, Karen is honoured to join the Strike Out Stroke campaign as she is passionate about raising awareness of the signs, symptoms and treatment of stroke.

Felicity Sinfield

Felicity Sinfield is a Boroondara local, mum of three and proud Strike Out Stroke ‘Brainstormer’.

Felicity is also a Councillor at the City of Boroondara (elected in 2016) and is Chair of the Community Safety Advisory Committee. Her role also includes the Citizen and Young Citizen of the Year Committee, Community Strengthening Grants Assessment Panel member, member of the Early Years Advisory Committee, Kew Library Redevelopment Steering Committee & Kew Recreation Centre Aquatics Renewal Steering Committee.

Felicity is passionate about the grass roots support that local government can provide the community of Boroondara, and she brings a pragmatic approach to assist the community to navigate what can often be seen as bureaucratic organisation, advocating for the best possible outcome for all stakeholders. She is always looking for opportunities for continual improvement, business process optimisation and promotes transparent, balanced and sound decision making.

Although much of her career was focused on maritime search and rescue, and emergency management, Felicity also has a business background in project management, marketing, criminal intelligence, analysis, risk management, stakeholder engagement and governance.

Felicity enjoys supporting community initiatives and volunteers in their quest to promote and encourage a healthier community.

Together we can Strike Out Stroke.

Oscar Albero

As project manager, Oscar organizes the communication strategy in S.O.S.’ marketing and digital platforms. After his experience in Spain and USA, Oscar takes care of the creative and organizational part of the project that Strike Out Stroke works in favor of a productive and extensive awareness of the treatment of strokes in Australia.