Launceston teenager Alara Bird winner of Cancer Council Tasmania's Seize the Day scholarship

Miss Bird, 18, will follow her passion for medicine with a bit of help from the Cancer Council, after she was announced the Northern winner of the Seize the Day scholarship.

The award is sponsored by the Cape Hope Foundation.

Alara’s mother Lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. She is about halfway through her treatment and will start radiation next week.

“​I am just interested in going outside to different places an helping people who really need it,” she said.

The former Launceston College student said she would use the scholarship to help with her relocation costs and textbooks, when she moves to Hobart to study a fast-tracked Paramedic Practice at the University of Tasmania.

Miss Bird said she had always been interested in health and said she was looking forward to studying the industry in more detail at UTAS.

The scholarship is aimed at young Tasmanians aged 16-25 who have been impacted by cancer directly or indirectly through an immediate family member.

Mrs Bird said while she wasn’t looking forward to her daughter leaving home to study she was proud she had achieved the scores required to study paramedic practice.

The Seize the Day scholarships assists people with post-secondary education and started in 2006.

“The scholarship is more than just its monetary worth, it acknowledges the difficulties students have faced and gives them the encouragement to remain positive and persevere when facing adverse circumstances and pursue their future goals,” Cancer Council Tasmania chief executive Penny Egan said.