Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise every February, ever since I've been in this place, to speak on Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, being February, and the devastating effect that ovarian cancer has on women and their families in Australia. Unfortunately, ovarian cancer statistics are not getting any better. Cancer Australia reports that, in the four years between 2018 and 2022, ovarian cancer diagnoses rose. It reports that one in 84 women risk being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation reports that every eight hours one woman dies in Australia from ovarian cancer. That is three women a day, three families that are devastated by this disease ever single day.

Ovarian cancer is not simple to diagnose. Symptoms are too easily mimicked by menstrual symptoms of gastrointestinal complaints. It's so easy for women to put them down to their normal cycle or to think they've eaten something or they're feeling bloated. As I will articulate later, women who are working as flight attendants put it down to just their job. Doctors try to rule out other issues through non-invasive methods before putting forward the idea that they will have to do invasive tests to confirm whether or not there is ovarian cancer. Due to this late diagnosis, approximately 70 per cent of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer are diagnosed with a disease that has already spread. They are normally in stage 3 or stage 4. We're seeing only a quarter of women diagnosed live more than five years past receiving their diagnosis. Early-stage diagnosis can dramatically improve the chance of survival by 90 per cent.

We have to do so much more about raising awareness in relation to ovarian cancer. Almost one in every three Australians don't even realise that there is a difference between cervical cancer, which is routinely screened for, and ovarian cancer. When it comes to raising awareness we can all do our part. Have those conversations with your friends, work colleagues and family members. The more we talk about ovarian cancer, the more awareness will grow within the community.

I'd just like to put on the record—and I have my Tasmanian colleagues here; they may not be as fanatical as me—that the Tasmanian JackJumpers, the National Basketball League team from Tasmania, are fantastic. We are so proud of them.

It was great to watch our great JackJumpers on 29 January. They initiated wearing teal to raise awareness of and to demonstrate their support for gynaecological cancer in conjunction with the words, 'Support, hope, educate, achieve'. The fact that a men's basketball team of such great calibre was able to raise awareness is a really good example of what can be done. This is not just an issue for women; this is the responsibility of all of us—and I see those opposite nodding their heads. It is important that the JackJumpers and other sporting teams demonstrate their support, as the Australian cricket team have got behind Breast Cancer Australia and we know about the wonderful work that's being done there.

This is the deadliest cancer for women in this country. I acknowledge the wonderful work that is being done by Ovarian Cancer Australia. We're looking for support because we need to put more pressure on our government—which I intend to do—to continue to fund the very important research into this cancer. Ovarian Cancer Australia is trying to raise $4 million. This money will help grow the specialist ovarian cancer nurse Teal Support Program and it will also help progress research. We're finding that it is not just the physical diagnosis and the treatment that women have to endure. This disease has a psychosocial impact on their lives, and that's devastating. It's devastating for their families, and so we need more nurses that can be there to give the support and the psychosocial counselling that is needed to alleviate the depression that comes with the diagnosis. These women also suffer from anxiety and feelings of isolation because they believe that they're walking this path alone.

Those services need to be there because the diagnosis does not just affect the individual with the diagnosis but also their families. They have to have conversations with their children and their families. In addition, there are the economic costs of the depression, the anxiety and their fear of the recurrence of the disease. They have to deal with changes to their sexuality, their body image, how they relate to their intimate partners. These are things that we need to be talking about. We also need to talk about the nutritional plans that they need to have. They need dietitians, that support, that counselling. Let's be real: in the last 30 years very little has changed in the treatment of ovarian cancer, and the devastation of this disease continues to grow.

I want to acknowledge what happens to women diagnosed with ovarian cancer and the wonderful work of Ovarian Cancer Australia every single day to support Australian women. I want to talk about two women in particular, and I thank them for giving me permission to tell their stories and to put them on the record. I thank Alisi Jack-Kaufusi and Carolynne for allowing me to share their stories. Carolynne was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in March 2022. She went to the emergency department with severe pain in her lower right side. Her doctor did a CT scan, and this showed a 16-centimetre growth from around her right ovary. Carolynne started treatment, and that cancer treatment made her feel terrible. Physically, she felt so unwell. She was struggling with the change in her appearance and how this impacted her mental health. She has two children, and the first question that they asked when she was talking to them was, 'Am I going to die?' This is a horrible conversation to have to have with your children. But with the support of the Teal Support Program and her oncologist her overall health has improved, and we hope that continues to occur.

This morning, at the Parliamentary Teal Ribbon Breakfast, we heard from Alisi. In 2017, as just a young woman, a 20-year-old, who was living a full life, working as a flight attendant, she was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer. Alisi told her story. She talked about having a full life in her twenties before she was devastated with the news that she had ovarian cancer. She described the intimate details of how she felt—the physical and mental anguish that she went through.

Unfortunately for Alisi, her cancer has come back three times, and each time she's gone back to study; she's rebuilt her life. Obviously, it's not the life that she's had, with the feelings that she had; she was no longer the beautiful young woman who knew where her life was leading. She had her goals and her plans.

The devastation of this is that the aggressive nature of the chemotherapy and the treatment that she's had have brought her to a point where she's had to make that decision not to continue with the treatment. She's looking at the quality of her life and she wants to be able to tick off a lot of those things that she'd aspired to do in her life—the bucket list, as we refer to it. But what she really wants to do is to make sure that her life means something. From what she's gone through, time and time again, she's been able to tell her story, whether it's through the media, through groups or through the work she does. What she delivered to us today would have to have been the most powerful presentation that I have experienced in all the years I have been in this place. It was so powerful. There was not a person who left that breakfast who has not been impacted. I want her to know that she will not be forgotten and her words will stay with us. I thank her for her courage and the power of her speech and her message. (Time expired)