The Aabi Award for the Influenza Champion(s) of the Year

The flu can get very scary very quickly

Press play to watch the video.

Aabi was just 2 when she died from the flu. Her story is a powerful reminder to protect children.

Aabi is our bright, fearless, beautiful, and funny two-year-old who loved food, dressing up to put on fashion shows with her elder sister Aarvi, and enjoyed mealtimes, saying "woowwww mumma, thank you" to whatever was put on her plate.

She is and will forever be her sister's sunflower, her mumma's Koala, her papa's puppy, and her family's joy.

In May 2025, Aabi contracted influenza A. Within hours of her fever rising, she was gone. The virus had reached her brain stem, causing Acute Necrotising Encephalitis.

Her flu vaccine was booked for 6 May 2025. She became sick on 4 May.

The Aabi Award is created in her memory, to ensure that other families know:influenza is not "just the flu."

Read Aabi’s full story →

Download Aabi’s Story in poster format:

Aabi means “pure joy.” And that is exactly what she was.

The Aabi Award recognises people doing outstanding work to protect Australian families from influenza. Clinicians, researchers, community members, nurses, parents, pharmacists, teachers. Anyone whose work reflects Aabi’s spirit: protecting children, and the families who love them.

How It Works

1

Nominate

Nominations open 1 June each year and close on July 31. Anyone can nominate.

2

Panel reviews

A small judging panel selects three winners each August.

3

Winners announced

Each year on 26 August — Aabi's birthday — we announce the year's winners.

The 2026 Recipients

The first Aabi Award recipients were announced on 26 August 2026, Aabi's birthday, chosen from nominations across five states.

Rhiannon Jones, Wheatbelt WA

Rhiannon lost her daughter Lucy to influenza. In the years since, she has told Lucy's story so other parents understand what influenza can do, given her own time to immunisation advisory and research groups, appeared in the Western Australian Every Immunisation Counts campaign, and challenged vaccine misinformation in her own community.

The Boorloo Public Health Unit Influenza Immunisation Outreach Team: Nadia Clement, Debbie Thomas and Rebecca Labruyere, WA

This winter the team vaccinated more than 500 people at a multicultural market in Canning Vale, ran clinics at NAIDOC events and at services supporting people experiencing homelessness, and delivered influenza vaccination in their own homes to Aboriginal children who cannot get to a clinic, along with their siblings and parents.

Dr Jimmy Tseng, SchoolCare Clinics, Victoria

Dr Tseng paid for the vaccines himself and vaccinated around 600 students across nine schools in the Goulburn Valley, in Shepparton, Mooroopna, Numurkah and Toolamba, with health checks alongside.

Anna Theophilos, The Vaccination Hub and PSA National Vaccination Ambassador (Vic)
The Immunisation Program team, Communicable Disease Control Directorate, WA Health
Louise Boyd, immunisation nurse, City of Playford (SA)
Sarah Jean Doran, Tasmania Vaccine Solutions (Tas)
Dr Radhika Sheorey, East Brunswick Medical Centre (Vic)