Lorraine and Jim

It was a fortunate thing that Lorraine visited the Breast Screening bus when it was in Grenfell in March 2023. Lorraine was diagnosed with breast cancer in Orange when she went for imaging and markers.  Since then, Lorraine has travelled over 6,000kms to Orange or Forbes for tests, specialist appointments, for 2 surgeries, for radiation treatment, and for lymphoedema screening. Lorraine also has to travel to Young to see her GP, as there is only one GP in Grenfell, and he is fully booked. 

For Lorraine it was not just the distances that she had to travel for appointments and treatment, she also had to consider (a) driving the 4-wheel drive as the roads are pretty bad, full of potholes (uncomfortable when feeling unwell), (b) the extra time required for roadworks to fix said bad roads (no extra lanes available to assist with traffic flow) and (c) timing her appointments so that she missed the peak hours (dawn and dusk) of kangaroos on the road! Definite considerations metro cancer patients would not have to consider. 

Can Assist assisted Lorraine with the costs of accommodation when she needed surgery in Orange, and with some out-of-pocket specialist bills. And Can Assist will continue to support Lorraine’s cancer journey, as she needs it, with continued travel for regular testing, and lymphoedema screening. 

What started out as baby Jonah looking a bit pale, led to Jonah (and his mum Desiree) being away from home for 6 months and counting. 

Desiree took Jonah to the doctor at Young, who was worried about Jonah’s tummy after feeling it. An x-ray revealed a tumour, and so Jonah was sent to Orange Hospital, then straight to Westmead Hospital in Sydney. Jonah was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, with the tumour in his stomach. That was in February. Since then, Jonah has had 5 rounds of chemo – taking a longer time than normal as Jonah got COVID several times, and he must be healthy before they start another round. 

In July Jonah underwent surgery where 95% of the tumour was removed. The doctors thought they would have to remove o

ne of his kidneys too, but they saved it. The tumour was very aggressive – it was 100mm which was excessively big for the size of 16-month-old Jonah. 

The next stage was Jonah undergoing a blood transfusion where they put back in his good blood that they took when he first arrived at the hospital. Then Jonah was given another round of chemo. Jonah now will have radiation. He is expected to be at Westmead Hospital, or Ronald McDonald House where he goes to recover between treatments, for another 8 months. 

Whilst Desiree has been staying with Jonah in Sydney, David has been at home in Grenfell looking after his other children. David is self-employed so he is balancing keeping the money coming in with looking after the kids. It is hard for the other kids, especially the young ones, as mum is not home. David tries to go to Sydney every second weekend (round trip of 830kms) with the kids to see Jonah and his wife. It gives Desiree a break, she gets to see her other children, and Jonah really enjoys seeing his siblings. But so far David has travelled 16,000 kms, and Jonah is not home yet. 

Jonah was away for his 2nd birthday. And Christmas this year will be quite different – it will either be in Sydney if Jonah is well enough for visitors, so the whole family will have to travel there. Or it will be a split Xmas with Jonah and Desiree on their own in Sydney, and the others at home in Grenfell. 

As told by his father – David Mills