Dear@Kirsten,
JUst a few quick words, I will let those more eloquent than I speak for themselves.
I am a Metastatic Breast Woman, and have been a member for 7 years, on the occasions that I have rung and spoken to bcna telephone support people, of which Rosie Brown, now longer there and Giovanna now no longer there, I was able to speak freely at all times mentioning chemotherapy drugs, symptoms and side effects and knew that those two ladies in particular knew exactly what I was talking about both Rosie and Giovanna were aware of and made available to me clinical trials that were open and those that would be opening, I am pretty certain that if I rang now there would not be anyone there who could help me in that regard, when I did ring about two weeks ago I was advised to ring the cancer council, my need at that time was not for specific information, it was purely to speak to a caring and compassionate person regarding what was happening with me regarding the anxiety in my life, when I realized that the person I was speaking to was not a cancer nurse I clammed up and did not feel secure in, that, persons knowledge of metastatic breast cancer was at a level I was comfortable with.All of the comments thus far are valid and worthy of discussion, however you will have to read all of the above posts to get the gist of what is being said.
Its a sad and sorry situation that bcna now finds itself in, do I now ring the McGrath Foundation who have 2 very competent telephone Breast Care Nurses available 5 days a week, or the Cancer Council, if thats the case, why would I want or need to ring bcna for information, I have long been an advocate of BCNA and they have been very good to me in the past, I was invited to come to Melbourne to do a video about Metastatic Breast Cancer, this was via Danielle Spence, now no longer with bcna, I was invited to a bcna reception at government house some years ago as well, I also wrote and gave to Danielle Spence a letter for Greg Hunt when she had a meeting with him in Canberra, again some years ago, this was regarding bcnas participation in trying to get palbociclib made available to Australian women, I must also add that Giovanna also represented the metastatic breast care women with passion and dignity,I must also add Rosie Browns name , in that she was the go to person for my time in melbourne
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All I can add is where to from here for bcna?
wendy55
