Barwon Health's Andrew Love Cancer Centre, Geelong

My journey began at the start of 2015. I had proposed to my now wife Kacey the previous year and we had all our wedding details for April that year finalised. Things were going well, I had landed a career at the Shell/VIVA Geelong refinery after ten years with GM Holden and we were halfway through renovating our country property.

One morning my then fiancé Kacey and I met at our Ministers house to go over details of our upcoming wedding. While waiting out the front of her house I stretched and noticed a lump at the base of my neck, just above my collarbone. Surprised I mentioned it to Kacey and without hesitation she rang up our local clinic and made me attend. To be honest if it were up to me I would have waited some time hoping it would go away. The next week or two involved an ultrasound then a needle biopsy. After the biopsy I was told I would find out in a week or so the outcome but when the phone rang a day after to come into the doctors clinic I knew deep down it was something more than a simple cyst.

 When my GP told me the results that I had a type of lymphoma it didn’t really sink in, not until I heard the words “blood cancer” and “chemotherapy”. The next few weeks involved many scans, surgery to remove lymph nodes for testing and an appointment with Dr David Kipp at the Andrew Love Cancer Centre. The constant tiredness and weightloss that I had put down to shiftwork combined with regular night sweats now ticked all the boxes for symptons of lymphoma. There were some ups and downs at the start, finding out I had a 9cm mass in my chest was surprising but when a bone marrow biopsy revealed we had caught it early some relief was felt. The hardest day was when the test results came back that I actually had a rare type of T cell lymphoma, Anaplastic large cell Lymphoma. My life was about to be turned upside down and I was given a 50% chance of surviving it. Our plans of getting married and starting a family would have to work around 6 months of intensive chemo therapy (hyper C-VAD) followed by a stem cell transplant and radiation therapy. We brought our wedding forward to the start of March and cancelled our Cook Islands honeymoon. Instead of relaxing on a beach I was laying on a bed having a tube inserted in my chest that would deliver the lifesaving but sickening treatment for the next 6 months. Week long stints on Heath Wing 2 in the University Hospital Geelong and daily visits to Barwon Health’s Andrew Love Cancer Centre were now part of everyday life.

Some would have called us crazy but as starting a family would now only happen with the help of IVF we began the process at the same time. Halfway through my treatment a PET scan and a blood test would return the greatest news we could imagine. I was in remission and Kacey was pregnant with our future son Mac. The remaining months of my treatment were tough but knowing that I had to get better so that I could become a Dad drove me to accept whatever I had to do to achieve it.

I can never thank enough the team of Doctors, Nurses and Staff at the University Hospital Geelong and Andrew Love Cancer Centre for the care they gave me and still continue to, two years on. They made what seemed like a life sentence at the time feel like a bump in the road. I met and continue to meet many great people throughout my journey.

The most prominent was a great man Scott Beyer. Scott was also 29 when diagnosed with a blood cancer and had battled through the exact same intensive chemotherapy that I had to. He took it upon himself to coach me through my treatment, telling me what to expect and putting my mind at ease when I progressed through each stage. Something that no one else could do. His messages and reassurance kept me upbeat and took away the fear of the unknown. Scott was a previous Dry July ambassador and at the time I met him was fighting the toughest fight against a relapsed extremely rare T cell lymphoma. I was devastated when Scott lost his battle last year, leaving behind his wife Corrine and two young girls Ava and Sophie. His determination and will to fight while also helping others is a memory that will live on and will continue to encourage others to raise much needed funds for such a worthy cause. Witnessing Scotts fight is what drove me fundraise almost twenty thousand dollars last year and accept the role of ambassador for Dry July.

Every cent raised for the Andrew Love Cancer Centre is vital for treatment and care of so many people that it saves every day.

At 55, Glenda was a fit and healthy marketing consultant relishing in the joys of becoming a grandmother for the first time. It was the discovery of a small, painless lump in her throat that changed Glenda’s life.

“Eighteen days after surgery to remove the lump I had a massive bleed requiring hospitalisation to cauterise it. As I was going under, I was told I might not live through the operation but thankfully I did,” Glenda said. 

“I had 35 rounds of radiation therapy simultaneously with chemotherapy over seven weeks. After the tonsil was removed, I had a PEG tube inserted into my stomach to allow me to have a high protein liquid food. It remained there for eight months. During this period I was unable to eat solid foods for most of that time.” 

It wasn’t just the devastating diagnosis of cancer that Glenda and her husband Geoff had to cope with, it was also a social stigma associated with having a head and neck cancer.  

“People assume that if you have a head and neck cancer, you have been a heavy drinker and smoker. But not all people who have a head and neck cancer have been drinkers or smokers including myself. Without using the exact words, some people considered me and others with this type of cancer to have lived a ‘dirty’ life,” Glenda explained. 

Now in remission, Glenda is a volunteer at Barwon Health’s Supportive Care Centre, a place where she connects with people going through similar experiences in a non-clinical way. Glenda hosts morning tea twice a month in the centre and up to 30 patients and their family members attend to support one another. 

“This cancer is less well-known and it can happen to anyone – it is a terrible cancer that causes so much trauma with a long road to recovery,” she said.  

“I made a conscious decision to remember as much as could about my experience so that I could help others going through similar experiences. 

“Many people supported me during and after my illness. Family, friends and members of groups that I have been involved with have helped to fundraise. The funds raised have been used to create bags of the essential things people need when they begin their treatment journey. We have been able to provide these bags to Barwon Health to hand out to newly diagnosed patients for the last five years The fundraising has also been used to provide patients and carers with support morning teas here in the Supportive Care Centre. However these are held fortnightly and sometime we can have 50 people through, so I’m finding it really hard to fundraise enough to support this number of people.” 

Glenda was absolutely delighted when she received the news from Sara at the Barwon Health Foundation, that funds from Dry July 2017 will now fund her carer support morning teas and packs which will allow her more time to volunteer and support the patients and carers coming to see her (and her cooking!). 

Glenda said her experience as a patient made her want to give back to others going through the same thing, 

“I find the support I give to these patients and carers very fulfilling. After going through what they are currently going through, I feel very privileged to be able to give them information and ideas about what it’s like and what helped me. Sometimes it can be very hard to eat and keep weight on when you are going through treatment, and I try to bake things I know the patients will be able to eat. Often the carers when seeing this will go home and bake exactly the same things.”    

At 63, Glenda’s treatment and recovery is ongoing but she hasn’t let it get in the way of living life to the fullest.  

“I still have health issues that require monitoring and treatment but I have learnt to live around these limitations. I have a wonderful quality of life – I am living and enjoying my life with friends and family and doing volunteer work.” 

Photos: Glenda and some of her baking 

Photos: Glenda and one of our patients and her carer

Patients will now have a brand new car to get to their appointments at Barwon Health thanks to a brand new car funded by the Dry July Foundation.

The new car has been added to the Volunteer Transport Program at Barwon Health and will help those patients who need assistance to reach their life-saving appointments and treatment at Barwon Health's Andrew Love Cancer Centre.

In 2017, Dry July donated more than $154,000 for the comfort and care of cancer patients at Barwon Health. Some of the items funded this year have included exercise therapy, a patient art program, music therapy, nutrition support and edible gardens, carer support and massage.

Dry July Foundation CEO & Co-Founder, Brett Macdonald, believes the new car will make a big difference to cancer patients and is exactly what Dry July is about,

“The Dry July Foundation is proud to have funded the volunteer patient vehicle for patients of Andrew Love Cancer Centre. This vehicle will help patients be transported to and from their chemotherapy/radiation therapy appointments and their homes.

The new Dry July vehicle means an extra 200 patients a year will be able to use the transport service offered by Andrew Love Cancer Centre, helping to reduce the stress associated with getting to and from appointments. This will help improve the wellbeing of people affected by cancer, which is what Dry July is all about. 

Thank you to the Dry July participants who helped raise the funds for the vehicle – your fundraising is making a real difference to cancer patients and their families in your local community.” 

The brand new Subaru was also part of this fundraising and grant program in 2017.

Andrew Love Cancer Centre continues to provide diaries to patients who are attending chemotherapy treatment to assist with their scheduling of appointments both medical and personal to alleviate the stress of the complex appointment schedules. These diaries have been made possible through Dry July funding for a few years now.

Emily, pictured here, says 'During my treatment I have found the diary really useful during my chemotherapy and subsequent surgery for keeping track of appointments and phone numbers for any questions I have during my treatment journey.'

Thanks to Dry July, the Andrew Love Cancer Centre in Geelong has been able to offer expressive art classes as part of the Supportive Care Centre. Patient feedback on these sessions has been very positive.

“I came in feeling heavy & we are leaving feeling lighter because of the art therapy”

“The session has opened my thinking, making me look at the situation in a different and more positive way.”

“The class has allowed me to share with others and helped me with ways to deal with things”.