Jenny’s Story

Waiting a week to find out that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017 was one of the toughest weeks that Jenny had been through. But it was the beginning of a long journey. 

Jenny and her husband Scott had to travel to Melbourne from Finley for the first part of her treatment – surgery and chemo. Jenny found the surgery to remove the lymph nodes was more invasive than the surgery to remove the lump in her breast. Then Jenny had 6 rounds of chemo, once every 3 weeks. The trip to Melbourne is a 3.5-hour trip (310km), one way. 

Her radiation treatment was in Albury (150kms one-way), which made it slightly easier to be home some nights for the kids and the farm. Radiation was every day for 5 weeks and her week would look like – Monday day trip, Tuesday afternoon treatment and stay the night for Wednesday morning treatment, and Thursday afternoon treatment and stay the night for Friday morning treatment. 

In 2019, Jenny was on a drug trial for a cancer hormone medication, which involved having a blood test every 4 weeks. These blood tests revealed that Jenny’s platelets count was dropping, unrelated to the drug trial. Further testing revealed that Jenny had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), and she spent the next 3 months in a hospital in Melbourne having chemo.  

This is when they discovered Can Assist. Even though Scott didn’t want to accept assistance, with Jenny not being able to work, Scott trying to work and run the farm and travel twice a week to visit Jenny in hospital, he knew they needed assistance. The mileage and the hospital car park fees alone were adding up – “Can Assist were fantastic – managed that we had free parking, and provided vouchers for petrol”. 

Jenny found out in December 2019 that she had a bone marrow donor, from a woman in Germany – luckily this happened just before COIVD hit hard as an HCP from Australia had to fly to Germany to pick up the marrow. On Valentine’s Day 2020 Jenny received her second chance at life – she now calls that day her second birthday, the day she had her bone transplant operation. Another month in hospital followed by 3 months living near the Melbourne hospital. But this is when COVID really did have an impact – instead of Scott being able to travel back & forwards to the farm, and friends taking it in turn to stay with Jenny in the apartment, Jenny and Scott spent the 3 months in an apartment during lockdown. Can Assist assisted with the accommodation costs. Apart from regular tests, all was good for Jenny until January 2022. 

The leukemia had returned – treatment this time was immunotherapy – so back and forwards to Melbourne for this treatment. Despite Jenny then being in remission, she suffers ‘Graft versus Host’ (GVHD) which is when transplanted donor cells recognize the recipient’s tissues as foreign and attack them. So now Jenny is taking drugs for the breast cancer, for the leukemia and for GVHD. 

So far Jenny has traveled 80,000kms over the 7-year cancer journey, and it is not over. Jenny will need to see her hematologist for the rest of her life, in Melbourne.  

“Can Assist were always there. One lady used to ring me every Thursday to check in and see how I was going, how my week was … we formed a beautiful friendship. Can Assist also helped my husband …organised someone to come and clean my house, so I had a clean house to come home to. Some weeks he couldn’t work at all… we got by, through the support of Can Assist”.