HIGHLY COMMENDED

Lorna Cook (left) & Julie Adams, WA

CHEMO@HOME

With decades of working in cancer care between them, nurse Lorna Cook and pharmacist Julie Adams, both 40, could see there was a need for a specialised service to deliver treatments to patients in their own homes. “We are the only company in the private sector that does cancer care at home,” says Lorna.

“Our aim is to give the health consumer a voice; it’s how they want to be treated, rather than others telling them how they are to be treated.”

The effect, for many patients, has been life changing. “People discontinue treatment because they can’t get to hospital or because of the effect on their families. It’s called treatment fatigue,” explains Julie.

“You can change survival rates by treating patients at home. We get feedback telling us what a difference it has made to their lives.”

After mortgaging their homes to start the company in 2001, Chemo@Home now has 13 staff to administer over 200 treatments a month, and is a $1 milliona-year company. “Letting people know that when they need this kind of service it is there is vital,” says Julie.

“Fast growth requires money all the time from different places.”