industry & reform of women are diagnosed with advanced disease , and 70 per cent of those will relapse within three years .
Being there with people at their most vulnerable is a real trusting relationship . It requires a lot to give a lot of help at that time , but I think you get so much more back from working with people and helping support them and the wisdom that they give you of facing their own mortality .
I ’ ve learned so much about life by working with people who have to confront their own mortality .
What roles have you played in nursing , especially in helping women with ovarian cancer ? Probably the thing I ’ m most proud of is the Teal Support Program . That ’ s enabled us to provide support to women across Australia . We know that about 40 per cent of women with ovarian cancer are living with anxiety and depression . My colleague , Cheryl , who works as a director of our support program , has really widened the services to offer a psychologist , social workers and grief counsellors to support women . That ’ s what I ’ m most proud of .
I ’ ve worked with our incredible CEO , Jane Hill , in the advocacy space and advocating for more research funding . Ovarian cancer is the deadliest female cancer , and it requires more research funding , and more partners to come on board and support us .
We ’ ve had some really wonderful supporters at Ovarian Cancer Australia , but we know we need more people behind our cause . Our mothers , daughters , sisters and aunties are still dying of this disease , and we really need to mobilise the Australian community to improve outcomes for women with ovarian cancer .
Is there a specific reason why you specialised in ovarian cancer ? There is , actually . My uncle Paul ’ s partner Chrissie was diagnosed with primary peritoneal cancer , which is treated as an ovarian cancer would be , and she was diagnosed in the prime of her life . Unfortunately she had the classical late diagnosis . Primary peritoneal cancer is always usually diagnosed at Stage IV . To see how she suffered and not having that access to her own ovarian cancer nurse consultant was one of the motivators for me working in ovarian cancer care . We know about 1,700 women will be diagnosed this year , and we want better outcomes for those women that are diagnosed .
Chrissie has been one of my main motivators . When I saw the role , I thought , ‘ Yeah , this is an area that I think we need to do more in .’ I ’ d looked after women with ovarian cancer throughout my nursing career , be that in a ward situation , chemotherapy or in palliative care , and I just knew that the unfortunate statistics and the relapse rate make it a really , really difficult disease for the women and also for all of those around them .
You ’ ve been heavily involved in raising funds and awareness with Ovarian Cancer Australia . What do you hope to achieve in the future ? Apart from the Teal Support Program we ’ ve got a Younger Women ’ s Network . That ’ s an online group that meet monthly , and I ’ m really proud of it . It ’ s a really hard path for women when they ’ re diagnosed with this disease , particularly as it impacts their fertility when they ’ re younger women . We ’ ve also got our Male Partners ’ Program that supports the male partners of women who are diagnosed . We ’ ve done some fantastic research into the experiences of male partners , and up to 90 per cent of them will have fear of recurrence anxiety about their partner ’ s cancer returning .
We also have a suite of support groups across Australia . We ’ re launching some really exciting programs this year around sexuality counselling . We know that many women are impacted by issues related to their sexuality , and it can be a bit of a taboo to talk about it .
From research , we know only about 26 per cent of women raise their sexuality and any issues and how that ’ s been impacted with a health professional . So we ’ re establishing a sexuality counselling service , an exercise and nutrition program , and we ’ re broadening our support services with a psychologist and social worker , and we ’ ve brought on a team member to look at those more practical issues .
An area that we ’ re going to be doing more work in is financial toxicity . We know that cancer is very expensive for people , and we know that their finances can cause them quite a lot of worry . We know that just over 50 per cent of women will have worries about their finances , and we want to work with those women to understand what it is that they ’ re worried about and how we can better support them .
Looking at our telephone-based case management service , we ’ re working with the ovarian cancer registry at Monash University . We ’ re looking to see how we can use registries and telephone support to actually bring those two pieces together and have a more digitally focused service , where women can provide some of that information to us digitally to help us really target the care for them .
Do you have any plans for how you use the award money ? Yes . We are using that to have Dr Peter Martin – a palliative care consultant and a lead communication skills trainer in this country – do communication skills work with our support team . We do know from the data that the more confident health professionals are in their communication skills , the less at risk they are of burnout .
I think women are talking about really complex issues with our team . One of our nurses said : ‘ You ’ re probably the only person I feel comfortable to ask , what does it look like to die of ovarian cancer ?’
The skills of our nurses and our psychosocial support team need to be really strong to enable them to have those conversations in a way that ’ s beneficial to the women , but also a safe conversation that the nurse and psychosocial team feel really skilled to have .
Is there anything else you ’ d like to say to nurses in Australia ? I ’ d like to say thanks to all the nurses . I think it ’ s never been a harder time for our profession than in the last two years , and I ’ m so thankful to the team that I work with and the many nurses that I ’ ve worked with throughout my 26-year career in nursing .
I think we give a lot as a profession , and probably what I ’ ve learned over the years is the importance of looking after ourselves , and we really try and do that at Ovarian Cancer Australia by running our wellbeing program for the nurses . Each month they have debriefing with a psychologist , we do really strong communication skills .
Nursing ’ s an amazing career path , but it can be taxing if you don ’ t look after yourself . That ’ s probably the message I ’ d send out : look after yourselves so we can be there to look after the many vulnerable Australians across the country , and particularly , in a global pandemic . ■
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