Friday Update 18 May 2018

Hello everyone and welcome to
Friday’s update.   

First up, I just wanted to let you know that the Policy Team has
put together a more detailed news item about the Federal budget.

You can check it out on the website:  https://www.bcna.org.au/news/2018/05/2018-federal-budget/   It highlights seven things,
which are likely to be of interest / relevant to our members.

 1.       Funding for ribociclb to be
added to the PBS

2.       3-D mammography

3.       Funding for rural health

4.       Public hospital funding

5.       The Government’s investment
in the PBS

6.       The investment in medical
research

7.       Funding for palliative care

Pink Bun Campaign last few days

Just a few
days left to buy your Bakers Delight Pink Buns. Help BCNA support the 18,000
Australians with breast cancer. 100% of Pink Buns sold around the country will
be donated to Breast Cancer Network Australia.  

In the last
days of the campaign, we encourage you all to take a photo of yourself with a
Pink Bun with the hashtag #SweetWaytosupportBCNA

Community highlights

Every week we
have so much variety in the posts being shared in the online network.
 These can include questions about treatments, updates on how things are
going, and celebrating milestones. Here are some popular conversations you
might have missed:

Strategies
for those rough days

Thread commenced by @MoiraC which
highlights the ups and downs of breast cancer and feeling ‘out of control’ in
her usual humorous way.  Our online
community provided wonderful peer support and assistance with some strategies
for when the going gets tough.

What
do you do (or did)

Great thread commenced by @Sister,
intrigued by the working lives of our online community members.  I really enjoyed this thread as it provided
me with the opportunity to get to know you better.

Fashionable
Head Wear

Another great thread commenced by
@RR regarding suitable headwear during chemotherapy. Lots of good ideas here!

In the news…

Professor Christobel Saunders (former BCNA board member, cancer
researcher and professor of surgical oncology at University of Western
Australia) was part of an hour-long panel discussion program on ABC Queensland
with author Josie Dietrich and ABC host Emma Griffiths about
alternative/complimentary therapies in breast cancer.

Josie’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in her 40s and decided
to go the alternative therapies route with treatment which did not go well.
Josie herself was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years after her mother’s
death, and as a result of seeing what her mum went through decided to do the
opposite and did every single medical thing possible and as a result is doing
really well. She’s written a book about the whole thing called

In Danger: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/in-danger-a-memoir-of-family-and-hope-9780702259876

This hour of discussion is really even-handed about the whole minefield
and has some good interjections from talkback callers. Christobel in particular
is great when talking about why people might want to forsake medical treatment
for alternative therapies, and what medicos can do to make the conventional
medical treatment pathway less scary and overwhelming for patients. It also
covers clinical trials as well.  See the
link below

Link here: http://www.abc.net.au/radio/brisbane/programs/focus/focus-on-breast-cancer/9725806

Deb is a world leader
in occupational skin care and hand hygiene, and is BCNA’s newest partner.

Deb’s purpose is to
MAKE HANDS MATTER in the WORKPLACE, providing businesses with expert advice and
an extensive range to the commercial, industrial and healthcare industries.

For over 80 years,
they’ve been implementing skin care programmes to increase efficiency, improve
skin health and prevent infection.

Deb Australia is
proudly supporting BCNA. For every BCNA dispenser placed, Deb makes a donation
to BCNA.

If your workplace
would like to install a BCNA dispenser for sanitiser, hand wash, or shower gel,
please get in contact with Deb – (02) 8763 1800, or email sales@debgroup.com.

Pink Lady Luncheon Brisbane Volunteers Needed

We’re thrilled to advise that the Pink Lady Luncheon in Brisbane has
sold out! Due to this we are packing 550 gift bags on Tuesday 22 May in the
afternoon / evening and would love some help. We’ll be packing gift bags from
3pm in the afternoon and will take approximately 2 – 3hrs to complete. 

To
register your interest, please contact Chloe Douglas at specialevents@bcna.org.au or 1800 500 258.

Development of Supportive Care in Cancer
Resources Through Consumer Co-design

The Cancer Nursing Research Group at
the University of Melbourne, and the Victorian Department of Health and Human
Services, are inviting cancer consumers (current cancer patients, survivors,
family members, and support people) and clinicians working with people affected
by cancer (multidisciplinary health care
professionals, non-governmental agencies and Consumer advocacy groups), to
take part in a study to guide the development of new supportive care resources
to raise awareness of the value and importance of supportive care in
cancer.  

Phase 1 will include a series of three
consumer focus group, three clinician focus groups and a combined consumer and
clinician focus group.  The focus groups will take place at different
times, places and dates for the convenience of people taking part, and they
will last for no longer than 1.5 hours. There will be will be about 5-10 people
in each group.    

Phase 2 will include audio or video recording
of people talking about their experiences of cancer and of receiving/delivering
supportive care. Participants can choose to be involved in phase 1 only or in
both phase 1 and phase 2 of the study. 

If you would like to know more about this
study or are interested in taking part please contact:  Carol
Jewell, Research Assistant, Cancer Nursing Research Group, Department of
Nursing, University of Melbourne: Tel: + 61 3 8559 6146, Email: carol.jewell@unimelb.edu.au   

The Supportive Care in Cancer Refresh Project is
supported by the Victorian Government.

BCNA needs photos for our new work and breast cancer
program

We are developing an information hub on the BCNA
webpage, focusing on issues around work after a breast cancer diagnosis. BCNA
is proud to feature real people in all of the photos we use so we would like to
include photos of you in your workplace that we can feature on our webpage.
These photos could be of you at your desk, on a computer, cutting someone’s
hair, serving a customer, talking to your manager/colleagues, or anything else
that shows you doing your job.

Please email high resolution photos you would be
happy for us to use on our website, within presentations or in our resources
and promotional material.

Email photos to photos@bcna.org.au
and include your name in the subject line.

Thanks in advance! BCNA   

I have enjoyed reading your posts regarding your favorite
quotes so I thought I would add one of my own. 
I was recently given a small set of reflective cards and though I would
share one with all of you today

“Every day may not be good, but there is something good in
everyday”

Hoping you all have a great weekend,

Giovanna