Thursday Girls - a weekly Metastatic support group in Melbourne ...
l've just received a BC newsletter that includes information on the Thursday Girls in Melbourne - Thursday Girls provides a safe supportive space for members (and their partners) who are dealing with the challenges of living with metastatic breast cancer.
Members can attend the group in person or via Zoom - so if not well, or living in rural or regional areas - or even interstate?? ..... you can still attend as regularly as you want.
Thursday Girls is a free, weekly therapy and support group for women of any age, living with advanced, or metastatic, breast cancer (MBC). It is facilitated by clinical counsellor Emma Moran-Wall and social worker Marg Haywood. There are currently three groups: two weekly women’s groups and a fortnightly group for the partners of the members run by Michelle Emery Evans.
The face-to-face meetings are located in Box Hill, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Australia. All meetings can be attended in person or via Zoom.
The Thursday Girls Group started in 1997, facilitated by Dr David Kissane (psychiatrist and lead researcher) and Dr Christine Hill (psychologist). Funding was by the National Health and Medical Research Council as part of a worldwide clinical trial to assess the impact of supportive-expressive group therapy on the quality of life of advanced breast cancer patients. The evidence suggested that both quality of life and life expectancy improved for participants. When the trial finished in 2003, Dr Christine Hill and Dr Fiona McDermott (social worker) facilitated the group for the next 13 years until the end of 2016, when they retired. Marg Haywood and Sue Fisher took over group facilitation in 2017 and were joined by Emma Moran-Wall in 2023.
The groups have three main functions: to share information, create meaningful relationships with people in similar situations and get in touch with difficult feelings and thoughts, dilemmas and challenges. Examples of sharing information about living with metastatic breast cancer include talking about clinical trials or managing unpleasant symptoms caused by treatments like radiotherapy or chemotherapy.
Thursday Girls is a not-for-profit organisation that currently receives no government funding and relies on donations and fundraising to continue its invaluable services.
Links to published information about the Thursday Girls can be found under https://thursdaygirls.org/publications on the website below:
