SAMUEL JOHNSON, OAM
Actor
A fired-up actor, Samuel Johnson has used the spotlight of his Australia Day honour to call on the government to get serious about funding breast cancer research. 
He asked why cancer research was not higher than terrorism on the government's priority list.
"It's killing more of us; it's directly threatening more of us," he said.
"More leadership needs to be shown. I haven't seen a government in recent memory that's treated this problem as seriously as my family treats it."
Johnson, star of the upcoming mini-series about pop guru Molly Meldrum, has raised $2.5 million for cancer research through his charity Love Your Sister, which has almost 300,000 Facebook followers.
He raised $1.5 million of that riding a unicycle around Australia, in response to a dare from his sister, Connie, the mother of two young boys, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Since then, Johnson has raised $800,000 more through thousands of fundraising events and interviews around Australia.
His latest goal is to reach $10 million. He said he had an "epic plan", but could only say the project would be called "The Stick: For People who Give a F--ck". He hopes his Order of Australia Medal will "open more doors, that I'll be taken more seriously, and that we can reach our goal of $10 million for the Garvan Institute of Medical Research sooner".
"I'm going to get my cranky pants on and do a bit of the old-fashioned Stormin' Norman."
"I'm flying the flag for every mum in the country. And if it's a breast cancer patient that's not a mum, then she has a mum. To me it's a no-brainer.
"It should be number one, but I'm personally affected and perhaps don't have the objectivity that I need."
Johnson said he had done little acting work since shooting on Molly wrapped almost a year ago, aside from a few hours a week of TV and radio voiceover work.
The cancer fundraising, while unpaid, is his "full-time job".
With "half the country" doing volunteer work, he said his was nothing special, but he would milk his Australia Day honour - and his profile as an actor - "for all it's worth".
"If being Molly Meldrum is going to help me raise a bit of coin for cancer, then that's no dramas with me," he said.