Michelle’s Story

Michelle first had breast cancer in 2008 when she was 40 years old and had 4 boys under the age of ten. Due to the type of cancer and her young family, Michelle had 6 weeks of radiation but no chemo (“she can’t be sick for the months that the chemo treatment would have taken”). Her cancer treatment involved driving to Bendigo from her home in Balranald, on Monday, treatment for 5 days, then driving home on Friday – for the whole family. Can Assist assisted with the costs of accommodation and travel, as well as the payment of some bills. “It was a load off my mind as I didn’t have any income coming in … and with four kids under ten, I had plenty of bills coming in”. 

Michelle’s mother then had breast cancer in 2018 which prompted Michelle to have the hereditary test for cancer. Can Assist assisted with the costs of this test. The test came back negative, she didn’t have the cancer gene “which was good to know”, but that didn’t mean that Michelle was safe from cancer. 

In 2020 Michelle had breast cancer again (12 years later almost to the day), but a different type. Hence her treatment was different – Michelle had both breasts removed and radiation. Once again driving to Bendigo (600km round trip) was involved. Michelle had to take 3 months off work.  

Michelle’s experience with breast cancer was difficult – first having it with a large family and the youngest being 5 years old at the time. Then seeing her mum go through her own cancer journey. Michelle was a bit tougher and stronger when she received her second cancer diagnosis, but once again the travel distances added to the strain of her cancer treatment. So far Michelle has had to travel 20,000kms. “I wouldn’t have been able to survive my journey without Can Assist’s help”. 

And Can Assist may need to assist again, as Michelle has Barrett’s Oesophagus  where there is a change in the cellular structure of your oesophagus lining. It’s a risk factor for cancer, but the risk is low. “Fingers crossed”.