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Campaign targets breast cancer in the bush

November 18, 2005

Minichiello.thumb.JPGA public forum in Armidale next week will mark the beginning of a regional awareness campaign on breast cancer – a disease that affects one in 11 women before the age of 75 and poses additional problems for patients in rural areas.

The guest speakers at the forum, organised by the Trish Cairns Breast Cancer Awareness Association and The University of New England, will be specialists from St Vincent’s Clinic, Sydney: Dr Paul Crea (breast surgeon and surgical oncologist) and Dr Steven Liew (plastic and reconstructive surgeon). A panel of local breast cancer experts and survivors will answer questions from the audience and discuss the importance of breast cancer awareness in rural communities. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon. David Hawker, and the Federal Member for New England, Tony Windsor, will attend the forum and give their perspectives on the issue.

Professor Victor Minichiello (pictured here), Dean of UNE’s Faculty of Education, Health and Professional Studies, said: “Generally speaking, women living in rural Australia who have breast cancer are faced with challenges that seriously disadvantage them, their families and their communities.” Professor Minichiello said elements of that disadvantage included reduced access to screening information and services, a lack of (or limited access to) the full range of treatment options, and fewer options for care and support during and after treatment. “This is despite the fact that rural Australia has an increasingly higher proportion of older people than the cities,” he said.

The Rural Community Forum on Breast Cancer Awareness and rural launch of the Trish Cairns Breast Cancer Awareness Association will be in Armidale Town Hall on Saturday 26 November from 10 am to 1.30 pm. For more information, contact Leigh Kelly in UNE’s Faculty of Education, Health and Professional Studies on (02) 6773 3862.

Professor Minichiello said that the forum would not only examine the problems of rural women with breast cancer, but celebrate the resilience of rural communities in facing those problems. “Our medical practitioners are first-class,” he said, “and, because of their relative isolation, have to be more global in their skills and better team players than their metropolitan counterparts.” He added that people in rural communities were “more focused on learning how to cope”, and that the forum would “acknowledge, inform and extend that focus in relation to breast cancer”.

Dr Paul Crea is the Patron of the Trish Cairns Breast Cancer Awareness Association, which is supported by the Sisters of Charity at St Vincent’s Hospital. Dr Crea, Marie Sutton, and Barbara Williams (the sister of Trish Cairns, a rural woman who died of breast cancer six years ago) founded the Association, and announced at its launch in August this year that Armidale would be its first regional destination. Dr Crea is one of a small number of surgical oncologists in Australia whose work is wholly dedicated to the treatment of breast problems.


Media contact: Professor Victor Minichiello on (02)6773 3862, Dr Paul Crea on (02) 8382 6780, or Jim Scanlan (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at November 18, 2005 10:14 AM