This week, a senate select committee into funding for research into low survival cancers will hear from members of the public and prominent cancer organisations at a series of public hearings around the country. The hearings will look at why survival rates for some of the worst cancers in Australia have not improved in over 30 years.
Geelong mother Penny Stanley beat breast cancer last year, thanks in part to the huge amounts of research that has been invested in that disease. Tragically, one year later, her beautiful five year old daughter Zoe was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer, and the options available to Penny one year previously do not extend to her daughter. Penny hopes this Select Committee will change that for future families facing this diagnosis.
My beautiful daughter Zoe, who recently turned five, has been diagnosed with a rare brain tumour and is now going through the fight of her little life.
In just three months my husband and I have had to make decisions that no parent should ever have to make and watch her go through radiotherapy (for the brain and the spine), MRI scans under general anaesthetic, two surgeries, and ensure she takes chemotherapy tablets every day.
