House debates

Monday, 24 February 2020

Private Members' Business

Ovarian Cancer

11:06 am

Photo of Katie AllenKatie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion and I rise to speak on the member for Lilley's motion. With matters such as this we need bipartisan support. I'd like to note that February is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Each year, over 1,500 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The devastating reality is that approximately 46 per cent of women will die from it within five years. With no early detection test, ovarian cancer is one of the deadliest female cancers. This is because symptoms are non-specific and are often ignored or misdiagnosed. It's so important that we educate women about the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer, which can include increased abdominal size or persistent abdominal bloating, pain, feeling full after eating a small amount, and needing to go to the loo frequently. As a young medical student, I was devastated to be close to someone who died from ovarian cancer. She didn't know that the symptoms of bloating were terminal. She didn't know that she was living with a time bomb. Unfortunately, many decades later, ovarian cancer remains a disease that's difficult to diagnose, difficult to detect. And we don't have good solutions.

That is why I was honoured to be asked to become an ambassador for Ovarian Cancer Australia along with the member for Paterson on the other side of the chamber and Senator Hanson-Young in the other place. To truly tackle diseases like ovarian cancer, we must have bipartisan support in government to make sure we are all striving for a common goal to reduce and eventually eradicate this terrible disease.

As we know, cancer has no rules. It doesn't always do what we want it to. The Ovarian Cancer Australia website is full of so many brave women who are willing to share their stories to help raise awareness. There are stories such as Michelle's. She tells us how she was diagnosed with stage 1C ovarian cancer at just 23. Katherine was just 22 when doctors found a cancerous tumour on her ovary. These women had symptoms that any of us could have.

Ovarian Cancer Australia is at the forefront of raising awareness and supporting those who've been affected by ovarian cancer and their families. Their vision to save lives and ensure no woman with cancer walks alone has been a huge support for hundreds of women. They work to ensure women living with ovarian cancer have a strong and united voice.

Over the last 15 years, we've seen a dramatic improvement in the survival rates of cervical cancer. Education about early detection and the wonderful cervical cancer vaccine that was discovered and developed here in Australia are things that we should all be proud of and have resulted in a significant drop in the rate of cervical cancer and a wonderful increase in survival rates. Now it's time to get those same results for ovarian cancer. And we are heading in the right direction. The Australian government has invested strongly in this area, announcing $20 million in grant funding specifically to look at the cause, diagnosis, treatment and, ultimately, a cure. This is on top of the $15 million dedicated for new clinical trials involving gynaecological cancers, including ovarian cancers. Scientists, researchers and doctors are ready. The science is ready to advance in this space, and the Morrison government is there, ready to invest, to give the scientists, to give the doctors and to give the medical researchers the opportunity to help patients not just here in Australia but around the world. Australia is already punching above its weight in medical research. We have some of the best research coming out of our universities, our centres for cooperative research and our hospitals, but we should be bold and brave and ready to help tackle the scourge of ovarian cancer head-on.

Ovarian Cancer Australia's advocacy work is to be commended. Teal Ribbon Day 2020 is in just a couple of days time on 26 February, and I encourage all in this chamber to pledge their support to raising awareness of ovarian cancer and its symptoms not just in the month of February but all year round. There's so much more that we can do, and ovarian cancer is one of those hidden, silent diseases. If you have symptoms, go see your doctor. Early detection is the only way forward.

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