Melbourne philanthropist Patricia Ilhan dies after cancer battle

Melbourne philanthropist and business identity Patricia Ilhan has died aged 62 after a battle with cancer.

Ilhan, who established the Ilhan Food Allergy Foundation in 2006 with her first husband John Ilhan, of the Crazy John mobile phone empire, died on Thursday morning.

She is survived by her four adult children, Yasmin, Hannah, Jaida and Aydin, her stepdaughter Makenzi, and her second husband Chris Blackman, whom she wed at Port Phillip Estate in March 2022.

A statement from her children read: “We can sadly confirm that our beloved mum passed away this morning. She was surrounded by her family and her husband. She was so strong, and a fighter to the end. She stayed true to herself and was very brave.”

Ilhan and Blackman first met as friends when Jaida and Makenzi were in three-year-old kinder. Their friendship turned to love years later, in 2017.

Warm, welcoming, relentlessly positive and always fun, Ilhan was widely respected and greatly liked in the Melbourne community.

She was a dedicated and determined campaigner for causes close to her heart including men’s health awareness, breast cancer research and food allergy research.

Inheriting the Crazy John business in 2007 following the death of her first husband John, Ilhan sold a 75 per cent stake to Vodafone in 2008 for $150 million and invested in property. She was estimated to be worth $407 million in 2018, according to The Australian Financial Review.

In 2019, she was diagnosed with breast cancer which she initially overcame.

However, in April this year she revealed her cancer had returned.

“It was aggressive and fast-growing and had come back with a vengeance,” she told the Herald Sun.

The diagnosis came just a week before Christmas, in December 2025, after tests spurred by a niggling headache and a sore rib in her back. An X-ray detected a spot on her lung and subsequently cancer was discovered.

“They didn’t use those words [stage 4], but that was implied because it was elsewhere other than my lung. It was in my kidney, there was one at the base of my spine, there was one on the back of my ribs which initially caused the pain,” she said in that April interview.

She bravely hoped at the time she had another “20 good summers left”.

Ilhan was a Brighton and Portsea fixture. When she decided to knock down her large Brighton home in 2022 and build a new property as part of a “downsizing” plan, she staged a demolition sale of fixtures, fittings and furniture, offloading designer fashion pieces from Chanel, Armani and Dolce & Gabbana.

Just before the house was torn down, Ilhan hosted a de