Good foundations
Improving quality of life with cancer
WITH the long-held dream of a new cancer centre for Dubbo now just months from becoming a reality, a group of volunteers from across the region has established the Western Cancer Centre Foundation, a charitable entity that aims to help “smooth the rocky path” and improve the quality of life for cancer patients and survivors through the provision of a range of complementary services.
Fellow volunteer board member JEN COWLEY spoke about the WCCF’S aims with chair and renowned Dubbo-based oncologist, Dr Florian Honeyball, who took time out for the interview while seeing patients at one of his regular outreach clinics in Walgett in the region’s far west.
Florian, thanks for giving up your lunch break to speak with me from Walgett. You’re the volunteer chairman of the Western Cancer Centre Foundation, but what exactly is your field of professional expertise?
I’m a medical oncologist at Dubbo Health Services, and chair of the Western NSW Local Health District (LHD) cancer services clinical stream. I also lead the Remote Video Assisted Chemotherapy program increasing access to cancer treatments in remote communities.
What is the difference between the Western Cancer Centre Foundation (WCCF) and the centre itself?
The Cancer Centre is the facility that provides treatment for cancers across our entire region – it’s run by the local health district (LHD) and it’s designed to provide a world class but basic service to people in our area.
What the foundation strives to do is improve on that service and help to increase the quality of life for people with cancer, not just here in Dubbo but across the entire western region, by providing a holistic approach to cancer and its treatment. That will include fitting out the wellness centre within the new cancer centre.
Providing complementary services like exercise physiologists, dieticians, occupational therapists – over and above what the health service is obliged to provide – programs that are not part of the standard fare.
It’s also about providing services further afield, for instance to help a smaller town get chemotherapy services, or help establish a new outreach service, not just in medicine but in allied health services.
Maybe also trying to get clinical trials out of the city and into regional areas like Dubbo.
Those are the sorts of things we’ll be looking to provide as an addition to the cancer centre, through the foundation.
Is there an advocacy role for the foundation to play?
While it’s not part of the terms of the foundation as such, it’s a side-effect. The foundation will definitely advocate for the improvement of services. It will help improve the knowledge about cancer in our community, but it’s about providing extra services and things to help people to get through their cancer diagnosis and treatment, not just in the acute phase but for many years after, which is when people start falling off the bandwagon a little bit and may need more help than is currently available to them.
Can you explain the role of the volunteer WCCF board?
The board helps in shaping the way in which the foundation will move forward. It’s about getting people from a diverse range of backgrounds and areas to ensure there are enough voices being heard to reflect the communities of the region.
It’s also the role of the board to make sure the governance of the foundation is working properly and that what we’re doing is appropriate not only in medical terms, but also in terms of what the community expects.
The foundation will add to the treatment services of the cancer centre...we will do everything in our power to smooth that rocky path for people diagnosed with, treated for and being a survivor of cancer...
The board will also get the message out there that cancer is something that hits one in two of us, and it’s something we can actively do something about in making sure people’s access to care and quality of treatment is as good as it can be.
We are all volunteers on the board – all ten are from a diverse range of experiences and backgrounds – from medical people to cancer survivors, to awareness ambassadors, to those in professional, civic and business fields. We aren’t just from Dubbo, we have board members from surrounding communities as well.
What is the governance structure of the foundation?
The foundation is registered with the Australian Charities and Notfor-profits Commission, and has (Deductible Gift Recipient) DGR status, which means that for taxation purposes, it’s recognised by the Australian government as a charity, so all donations over $2 are tax deductible.
The foundation isn’t part of the health service, it’s important to make that distinction. It hasn’t been created to fund the services the health service should provide – the cancer centre itself will be entirely funded by the LHD, through the NSW and Australian governments, as will all the provision of services for the PET scanner, the chemotherapy suite, the linear accelerator (the radiation machine).
What the foundation is trying to do is to add to the services you’d get through any cancer centre across Australia and turn the experience of being diagnosed with, treated for and being a survivor of cancer into as smooth a path as it can be by providing as many complementary things as we can.
As a foundation, we will do everything in our power to smooth that rocky path.
You’re an oncologist, so you have “skin in the game” so to speak. Can you tell us how important the cancer centre and the foundation are and what sort of gaps will be filled in service provision?
The cancer centre itself is an incredibly important part of the Dubbo Hospital redevelopment in that it provides tertiary level care at a regional location. It means people will actually receive the care they should have, because at the moment a lot of people elect to have only the treatment they can have in Dubbo because it’s too hard to get to Sydney.
For instance, having the PET scanner available means people won’t have to travel to Sydney for an important part of their diagnosis and monitoring of their cancer.
Additionally, the radiation machine – the linear accelerator – being here in Dubbo means everyone in Dubbo can stay here for their radiation treatment rather than have to travel.
That travel often comes at a time that is innately stressful in itself.
Exactly. Having to travel often means having to stay away from families and family support – it’s already a very vulnerable time for people when they’re diagnosed and having treatment.
For people within a 100-kilometre radius of Dubbo it really means not having to stay away at all, and even for those who are outside that radius, it will still mean they can stay within their own region and medical catchment, and they’ll often have a network of family and friends here, so it’s not quite as alienating as having to travel to Sydney or Orange.
So there are both financial and emotional benefits?
Very much so, and the emotional and financial benefits aren’t just for the individuals with cancer, but also for the wider community because the fact that we can provide these services in Dubbo increases the number of professionals who will stay here to further their careers. It attracts people in the medical field to move to Dubbo, which has flow-on effects for everyone.
It also makes retiring in Dubbo and the west of NSW a much more viable option if you know that you have access to comprehensive cancer services within your own community and catchment.
On a personal note for you, it must be enormously gratifying after so long to see this kind of dream become a reality.
Beyond words. There have been so many people on this path with me and it’s the culmination of 46,000 people coming together to fight for a cancer centre for Dubbo and western NSW.
It’s incredibly gratifying to be part of a community which is so passionate about furthering its own health care needs.
If people would like to help support the Western Cancer Centre Foundation, what’s the best way to do that?
Feel free to go to the website, which will be launched soon, and that will show you how you can contribute financially.
We are also launching a Facebook page which will keep the community updated on what’s happening.
We’d also encourage people to consider becoming ambassadors for the WCCF – next year, we’ll be looking for “champions” in places around the region outside Dubbo to help us promote the services we’ll be offering.
We’d love for people to familiarise themselves with what the foundation does and to be our advocates in their own communities.
*Jen Cowley sits as a volunteer director on the board of the Western Cancer Centre Foundation.