Jacqui is a fighter
In 2020, Jacqui had just made a big decision to pack up and move from Melbourne for a new life in Adelaide with her partner Matt and little girl Evie.
In the throes of settling into a new city during the pandemic, parenting, breastfeeding, starting a new job and trying for a baby, Jacqui felt a lump in her breast.
Jacqui was soon diagnosed with aggressive HER-2 breast cancer at just 37 years old.
“I don’t want to scare people by sharing my story, but I want to empower them to know that it can happen to young people and whatever you need to do to feel reassured, just go do it straight away,” says Jacqui.
With your donation today, our researchers can help young mothers like Jacqui receive lifesaving breast cancer treatment.
“I don’t want people to go through what I did.”
Since her diagnosis, Jacqui has fought her way through 16 rounds of chemotherapy, 17 rounds of immunotherapy, 25 rounds of radiotherapy and a mastectomy. She faced every treatment alone due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Jacqui knows all too well the wreckage that cancer brings for young people, and the profound ripple effect it has on the rest of their lives.
“There are unique implications for someone in their twenties or thirties having cancer. You enter a different phase of your life much earlier – cancer impacts your work, family, finances and body image with early menopause, weight gain and skin changes,” says Jacqui.
By donating today, you will have a personal hand in ensuring we stop the heartbreak and protect families from the grief of cancer.
Join the fight!
Across the country right now, so many of our mothers, wives, grandmothers, children, family and friends are going through surgeries, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other life-changing treatments.
The women who do survive breast cancer endure a long road full of ups and downs before returning to their everyday lives. Many will never feel safe from breast cancer.
With your support today we can help the 1,720 Australians who will be diagnosed with breast cancer this October.
Tragically, 265 people will lost their battle to this heartbreaking disease this October during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
But there is hope! Our researchers are on the cusp of a vital breakthrough.
Research saves lives
Professor Khew-Goodall and her team at the Centre for Cancer Biology have discovered a way to predict and stop chemoresistance in people fighting Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC).
“We have seen very promising results, with small molecules directed at our therapeutic target showing to restrict chemoresistance and repair the sensitivity of chemotherapeutic drugs,” says Professor Khew-Goodall.
TNBC generally affects younger women, and two thirds of this group will become resistant to chemotherapy.
Without a way to predict chemoresistance, a patient’s chance of survival from this devastating disease drastically decreases.
Professor Khew-Goodall and her team are about to undertake pre-clinical trials, getting one step closer to turning this discovery into a lifesaving treatment.
