WAVES IN CANBERRA Making metastatic
T ransitioning from Consumer Representative Lisa Tobin donned a warm coat and made her way to Parliament House for a breakfast panel event with a burning message in mind. Lisa was determined that people living with metastatic breast cancer, including her, should be made visible by being counted on cancer registries. Lisa was participating in a live- streamed BCNA and Parliamentary Friends of Women’s Health breakfast panel discussion, Making Perth’s Mediterranean climate to a chilly Canberra morning in August, BCNA
‘If we can’t be counted, how can we be looked after properly?’ Lisa said to the gathering. ‘With that data, they could do things like identify locations for staff placement, for specialty training, and we would have better access to psychosocial services. ‘We have different needs, our tests never end, our treatment never ends,’ she said. ‘We need those services because we are living longer, and so we need more of those services for a lot longer.’
Metastatic Breast Cancer Count. The event on Thursday 3 August was opened by the Hon. Ged Kearney, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, and co- hosted by Peta Murphy MP, Member for Dunkley, and Bridget Archer MP, Federal Member for Bass. Lisa has been living with breast cancer for 23 years and metastatic breast cancer for the past 11 years, which is a cancer that can be treated but not cured. She believes if data registries had been tracking metastatic breast cancer when she was first diagnosed in 2012 it would have made a difference to metastatic breast cancer care, treatment, research, and support.
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October 2023 | Issue 96
Breast Cancer Network Australia
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