Let’s move on and remember why we are here
hi there everyone. Firstly thanks to all of you so much for all your support I have mentioned this in my other comments so won’t rave on too much about it here. I would like to now move on as I have resolved the issues I caused with those involved and would just love to start fresh with positivity. It’s pretty obvious now that no one wants anyone to stop contributing to this forum which I found very overwhelming but we all need each other so let’s re group take a breath and start over. It’s shitty enough that any of us have to be on here in the first place so let’s make it a place to laugh, vent, advise, and just support and respect each others feelings and opinions. Margie xx
Creative Corner!
CREATIVE CORNER: Because art is good for you Inspire and be inspired Creative Corner group is gone but that doesn't mean we should mute that creativity! Time to get inspired by each other. This thread is just for fun and expression, be it craft or drawing or photography, from a snap of your colouring-in to your take on a Degas painting, a wild exploration of your soul or just a stick figure you drew on the bus, you can share it here. Your work as well as your tips, tricks, tutorials, tasks, fun little DIY's, and anything that fuels your creative side are all welcome! Bookmark this thread (click the little star at the top right) to find it easily.📣 20,950 Australians.
After 27 years of BCNA advocacy, we've reached a milestone moment: For the first time, Australia has a national figure for people living with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). That number is 20,950 Australians. These are people with unique, long-term needs who, until now, have been invisible in our health data and largely overlooked in health system planning. On 27 November, we officially announced this landmark data alongside our report; 👉 From invisibility to influence: progress on MBC data reforms in Australia. Together, we can ensure this data translates into meaningful change. People with MBC deserve a health system that sees them, plans for them, and supports them to live longer and live well. This data gives us the foundation to make that happen - but only if we maintain the momentum. What can you do? Sign BCNA's pledge calling for investment in ongoing MBC data collection in all states and territories. 👉 Sign the pledge today 📞 For further support or questions about this announcement, call our Helpline on 1800 500 258 Monday-Friday 9am-5pm AEDT
THANK YOU, BREAST CANCER NETWORK AUSTRALIA NETWORK
T My name is Karen Cowley and I have been living with Advanced Breast Cancer for 12 years. I am also a very proud BCNA Consumer Representative. On Thursday 5th April, 2018 I was privileged to be invited to a very auspicious occasion at Victorian Government House hosted by The Honourable Linda Dessau AC to mark the 20th Anniversary of Breast Cancer Network Australia. I came away from this function just wanting to write down what Breast Cancer Australia Network means to me. Today I see a very modern organisation that has become the envy of many health organisations as it’s been the trail blazer not only for breast cancer survivors in Australia but by example, is the benchmark on what can be achieved by charity organisations whose existence is to give a voice through advocacy and community liaison for our most vulnerable people suffering from chronic or terminal disease. BCNA is truly the peak organisation for Australians affected by breast cancer by providing the very best support, information, treatment and care. Personally, I found out about BCNA by receiving “My Journey Kit” following my surgery in 2006. This was an invaluable practical and informative tool. I thought “wow” a lot of research and thought has gone into this resource. From then on, I was hooked, BCNA has not only provided me with support and information, but what is impressive, is that the “heart” of the organisation is its members who are encouraged to play a role. For me this has allowed me to express my challenges and triumphs without judgement or pity; pivotal in my mental health. Today, a fantastic BCNA initiative is the Online Community which allows members to connect and help and support each other and is also a portal for the BCNA organisation to keep up with member issues. From time to time I have become quite the blogger for this forum especially in the Metastatic Cancer category. Everyone is gracious and always respectful of everyone’s opinions. My personal involvement with BCNA started in 2012. What got me started with BCNA was an Information Forum in 2012 which covered a range of topics, but for me I was passionate about new technologies. Living with advanced breast cancer you are always aware of your mortality. Prof. Fran Boyle talked about T-DM1 (Kadcyla) technology. I thought it would be treatment for me so took this information back to discuss with my Oncologist. I was running out of options, so I became very active in supporting BCNA as a Consumer Representative to get Kadcyla approved by the TGA and then onto the PBS. This process took 4 years, but we got there. It was a privilege to have the opportunity availed to me by BCNA as their Consumer Representative to have the opportunity to address a Senate Committee looking into “Availability of New, Innovative and Specialist Cancer Drugs in Australia” in March 2015. Today BCNA are advocating again to get CDK Inhibitors Ribociclib and Palbocicib on the PBS. BCNA have valued my skills and have given me much needed self-esteem, and in turn BCNA have and continue to involve me in many of their initiatives. BCNA is a dynamic organisation constantly identifying ways they can affect improving outcomes for people diagnosed with breast cancer. You never know what curve balls life is going to throw at you, and it's how you deal with them that defines who you are. For now, I am living with cancer. It is my hope that we obliterate it, but I am not wasting time worrying about it. Anyone that has cancer knows that life goes on and it’s up to you to go with it. I find it very comforting to know that I am not alone and know that I can rely on BCNA to support me. Thank you. As part of the 20th Anniversary BCNA “Field of Women” Stand with Me at the “G” on 12th August. My family and I will be there. What a wonderful way to celebrate this fantastic milestone for BCNA, an organisation that has my interests and needs at heart.It Was Always When, Never If ~ Andy's Story 💪
💕 Andy Kahle was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, weeks after buying her first drag racing car and starting work toward her licence. She shares how holding onto one very specific goal carried her through treatment, and how that same car eventually became Therapy on Wheels. We are delighted that Andy has offered to share her inspiring story with our community 💕 I was in the shower on an ordinary Wednesday night when I felt it. Dishes done, Mick (my hubby) stretched out on the couch watching the news, the dogs under the dining table dreaming about leftovers they weren't getting. Then, a lump. Within a few weeks I was sitting across from my GP hearing him say the words out loud. "Andy, you have breast cancer." What followed was a double mastectomy with reconstruction, a full hysterectomy, chemo aggressive enough that it had only just come off trial, radiation over Christmas, and a decade of medication after that. I'm not going to dwell on all of it here, because that's not actually what this story is about. Before any of this started, Mick and I had bought an 8-second drag racing Torana. I was learning to drive it, working toward my racing licence, and I wanted it so badly I could taste it. We'd spent months practising the start procedure and the burnout and the launch in a mate's carpark, getting ready for my first real day at the track. Diagnosis didn't take that want away from me. If anything, it's the only thing that got me through what came next. I decided, somewhere very early on, that beating this wasn't going to be my finish line. My actual finish line was going to be an actual finish line, a quarter mile of it, at the track. On my good days, when I could barely manage it, I'd go and sit in the car out in the workshop. Not driving anywhere. Just sitting there breathing in the fuel and rubber smell, hands on the wheel, letting it remind me who I still was underneath all of it. I stuck photos of the Torana in the front of my hospital diary and showed them to every doctor, every nurse, every roommate who'd look. Not to make a point to anyone else. Just so the dream stayed real to me, on the days it would have been so easy to let it go. It was never "if" in my head. It was always "when." That "when" is what got me out of bed on the days people told me I didn't have to. It's what had Mick setting up a treadmill in the living room, right by the front window, so I could still walk without leaving the house when my immune system was too shot to go anywhere near a gym. It's what dragged me to actual rehab once treatment was winding down, doing embarrassingly small workouts. Some days my big win was lasting a whole minute on the cross trainer, then needing another whole minute just to find the energy to climb off the thing. It didn't matter how small the win was. Every single one of them was a step closer to that car. Wanting to survive was never quite enough on its own to keep me moving. I needed something to survive for. Something specific enough to hold onto with both hands on the days everything else felt too big to face. And I wasn't carrying that dream alone. Our whole motorsport family carried it with me, and they carried Mick too. Caring for someone takes a real toll on the person doing the caring, and heading down to the track or the workshop gave him somewhere to just be a person again, not "the carer." That community never once made either of us talk about cancer unless we wanted to. They just kept showing up, kept asking about the car, kept treating the dream as something worth taking seriously, right through the worst of it. Then, finally, my doctors gave me the green light. The hoist came down. The covers came off the Torana. We loaded her onto a borrowed truck and headed for the track, and when we got there I honestly had no idea how many people would be standing behind me. Friends, family, fellow racers, people who'd heard about the dream that had been so cruelly delayed and turned up anyway to see it happen. I don't think I'd properly understood, until that exact moment, how many people had been quietly carrying this with me the whole time. I raced that little car hard. You could not have wiped the smile off my face, or off Mick's, for the entire day. I made it all the way to the finals and came home with a runner-up trophy on my very first official race meet. But it was never really about the trophy, and it still isn't. It was about standing there at the end of that quarter mile, surrounded by every single person who'd believed in the dream when I could barely hold onto it myself, and knowing I was still me. These days I'm 16 years NED, the closest thing breast cancer actually gives you to an all-clear. Mick and I eventually sold the Torana and built a new car with a different job to do. I drive a 900+HP supercharged Hellcat Mercedes now, and that car became Therapy on Wheels, a way of handing other people the same thing that got me through my own treatment: a dream worth chasing, and a community standing behind them while they chase it. If you're in the thick of your own version of this right now, that's the only thing I'd want you to take from mine. Find the dream that's yours. Say it out loud to anyone who'll listen, and let them stand behind you while you go and get it. Mine was a quarter mile long. Yours doesn't have to be anything like it. It just has to be yours.March 8th - International Women's Day 🌟
BCNA was founded by women affected by breast cancer who believed there had to be a better way. 💗 A better way to communicate. A better way to deliver care. A better way to show kindness, dignity and humanity. That belief still drives our work today. This International Women’s Day, we celebrated the power of collective action. The UN Women Australia 2026 theme is “Balance the Scales”. When women come together to challenge the systems that shape their futures, real change happens. ‘For BCNA, “Balance the scales” means helping women navigate a breast cancer healthcare system that was not designed for them. We also change that system by working with health professionals and government, making sure we are at the table every time a decision is made about breast cancer,’ says Kirsten Pilatti, CEO of BCNA. At BCNA, women with lived experience lead change. Through advocacy, community and shared voices, we are reshaping systems so everyone affected by breast cancer can access the care, treatment and support they deserve. 💗 And finally, a little shout‑out to the amazing women right here in our online community. You’re the heart of this space - showing up for each other with honesty, humour, courage, and compassion. Whether you’re sharing your story, offering a tip that helped you through a tough moment, or simply reminding someone that they’re not alone, you make this community what it is. Here's to you! 🥂
Bouncing forward - can we do this?
There is this expectation that after treatment, we will bounce back and be our old selves again. Of course, anyone who has been affected by cancer or knows someone who has been affected, realises it's not that easy. There is a lot of emphasis on learning to accept the "new me". Tiffiny Hall, personal trainer, ex-Biggest Loser trainer, has come up with this concept of bouncing forward. She has related it to pregnancy and accepting that her body after childbirth will never be the same. So instead of pressuring herself to "bounce back" and have the same body she did before pregnancy, she advocates bouncing forward and accepting her new body and becoming the best "new me" that she can. Obviously, she was super fit before pregnancy and will always look 100 times better than the average person. However, I was wondering if it was an idea we could adopt or adapt to cancer survivors? Can we bounce forward and move into the space of acceptance of our new way of living? Can we find a similar phrase to "bounce forward" that has more meaning to survivors? Let's get creative :)
Convoy!
Was just checking some posts. I was chuckling and admiring some of your network names - they are funny, cute, warrior, mysterious, powerful. And I imagined a movie like the old 'Convoy' movie. All of us network members are driving trucks or riding shot gun and talking on the two way radios using our network names - and we beat the bad guys after many hilarious and scary episodes!
