COVER STORY
A STEP FORWARD T he City of Frankston Bowls Club’s Pink Pennant Day was the perfect setting for the great news that our
advocacy to have people with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) consistently counted on our cancer registries had come a step closer to being reality. Pink Pennant Day started at the Frankston City Bowling Club in 2021. Former MP Peta Murphy, who had been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, supported th event as club patron and helped it grow to include all twenty-five bowling clubs across across Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. Craig Williams and the committee at Frankston have been integral in its success supporting BCNA and those in the local community affected by breast cancer. It was among a sea of bowlers, complete with BCNA’s pink bucket hats, caps and sport socks, that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced $1.5 million for the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) to oversee the formation of an Australian Cancer Data Alliance. This will see state and territory cancer registries supported to work towards routinely collecting cancer stage and recurrence data. The club also celebrated renaming its BCNA Pink Sports Day to the Peta Murphy Pink Pennant Day to acknowledge the late MP’s advocacy for breast cancer—and particularly for metastatic breast cancer. BCNA—along with our metastatic lived experience reference group and other consumers—is proud to have started this advocacy to ensure the diagnoses of people with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) are counted. Almost two years ago, we listened to a group of our consumer representatives living with MBC who told us they feel invisible. They wanted to be made visible by being counted properly on cancer registries across Australia. Currently this data is not consistently collected across all states and territories which
Today, we are announcing a $1.5 million investment to better track cancer stages and recurrence data—because the more we know, the better we can help. Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister “This Federal Government funding will help the sector pioneer the collection of this important data to inform and drive policy, innovation, planning, treatment and care,” Ms Durston said. “Today we can begin consolidating a way forward for better quality data not just for breast cancer, but for all metastatic cancers.”
makes directing services to where they are most needed a challenge. BCNA Consumer Representative Dr Andrea Smith—who is living with MBC—said this funding announcement demonstrates the power of those with MBC to shape the breast cancer advocacy agenda in Australia. “MBC is the most severe form of breast cancer and the only one you will die from. The systematic collection and reporting of stage and recurrence data will help bring us out from the shadows and make us visible in the sea of pink,” she says. BCNA’s CEO Kirsten Pilatti and Director of Policy Advocacy & Support Services Vicki Durston attended the announcement.
THE JOURNEY 1998: BCNA launches and commences advocating for all Australians with breast cancer. October 2022: We highlighted the problem with an evidence- based issues paper. You can read our issues paper here. August 2023: We galvanised the sector by bringing key data and cancer experts together at a National Roundtable in Canberra to discuss a way forward. November 2023: BCNA’s report Time to Count People with Metastatic Breast Cancer—A Way Forward, outlined a roadmap. February 2024: $1.5 million announced for state and territory cancer registries.
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bcna.org.au
Issue 97 | April 2024
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