Fighting for the everyday, for everyone!
Your support will bring us one step closer to a future free of breast cancer for the next generation.
Alex
With no family history of breast cancer, nor no lump or obvious symptoms, Alex Tanner was simply undertaking her routine mammogram when her life changed forever.
It was April 2021, in a time affected by Covid, so while the mother-of-three would normally have her husband by her side at these appointments, visitor restrictions meant he was waiting in the carpark.
“I eventually saw my husband down at the car park and I said ‘I think I have breast cancer’,” Alex recalls. She soon underwent a biopsy, which confirmed their fears.
What followed next was eight months of intensive treatment. She had a full left mastectomy and auxiliary clearance (to clear out the lymph nodes), then 16 rounds of chemotherapy and 25 rounds of radiotherapy.
“It was a full-on eight months, chemo affects everyone in different ways. For me, the way it affected my appearance was daunting, it tells a story to everyone that you are dealing with something and sometimes you just want to escape those conversations.
Alex knows firsthand how much medical research can bring a brighter outlook for women like her fighting breast cancer.
“I’m so grateful for the country we live in and the access we have to medical research. Yes I’m on active treatment for the next 10 years, but just imagine the research that can be done in that time,” she says.
Robyn
Robyn never takes for granted the ‘everyday’ moments she spends with family and friends. Fit and vibrant at age 61, Robyn was shocked to learn she had an aggressive form of breast cancer – a tumor so big it even surprised doctors.
She knows it might have been cut short, having battled the most aggressive type of breast cancer: triple negative breast cancer.
She knew she had an uphill battle, with triple negative breast cancer being one of the most deadly types. Patients who don’t respond to chemotherapy only have a survival rate of 12 months. But Robyn always maintained a positive attitude, and even wrote a fiction novel while undergoing treatment to take her mind off her ordeal.
Dr Sarah Boyle
A talented breast cancer researcher, Dr Boyle works tirelessly to make the ‘everyday’ possible for families and loved ones.
And the fight is personal for Dr Boyle, with her mum and other women in her family affected by breast cancer. “My mother has had surgery and radiotherapy to treat breast cancer twice,” Dr Boyle said.
Based at the Centre for Cancer Biology, an alliance between the University of South Australia and SA Pathology, Dr Boyle’s early-career research was proudly funded by The Hospital Research Foundation (THRF) Group to investigate the physical forces that occur when tumours grow and spread.
She is now taking this work further, with both THRF Group and Government backing, to advance this knowledge and use it to develop clinical approaches to control cancer progression and spread.
