‘Generous, selfless’ Townsville mother in the fight of her life
A TOWNSVILLE family has suffered a devastating blow after a “generous and selfless” mother was diagnosed with cancer only a few years after her son was born with a lifethreatening heart condition.
Kristina Townsend recently learned she had lung cancer, despite not being a smoker.
Mrs Townsend said the news of her diagnosis was crushing, with the most recent tests showing additional tumours had appeared in her neck, lower back, right shoulder and right femur. “I was shocked,” Mrs Townsend said.
“They are running a lot of tests at the moment and trying to see where they can go from here. They are figuring out what treatments can be done.”
The Rasmussen resident said her family and friends had been very supportive during a difficult period.
“My husband Steven has been great.”
The 44-year-old said it was hard telling her two children,
Sean and Hollie, about the news. “We’re just telling them I’m very sick at the moment and the doctors are trying to fix mummy up. They’re only four and five, so it’s very hard for them to understand.
“I’m just hoping they can figure out what’s going on and they can cure me so I can see my kids grow up and just have a normal life.”
Mrs Townsend’s son Sean was born with a rare heart condition called Tetralogy of Fallot.
“He had open heart surgery at three and a half months old and he’s going to need further operations as he gets older,” Mrs Townsend said. Jen Alexander is a close friend of Mrs Townsend and praised her selflessness.
“She’s known by everyone and volunteers everywhere,” Ms Alexander said.
“It’s time people give back to her.”
Ms Alexander has set up A Gofundme to go towards Mrs Townsend’s ongoing appointments and treatment as well as care for her children.
THE Lansdown Eco-industrial Precinct at Woodstock represented a “huge” opportunity for the region, interim chief executive of Townsville Enterprise Wayde Chiesa said.
Mr Chiesa was commenting after three potential players — Edify Energy, Queensland Pacific Metals and Imperium3 Townsville — addressed a Townsville Bulletin Business Breakfast event on Thursday. But the players, who plan to invest more than $2bn over the next two years, creating more than 5000 construction and permanent jobs, need help with infrastructure development to support the precinct. Mr Chiesa said Townsville was well placed and should grab the opportunity to develop an eco-friendly advanced manufacturing hub.
MAJORS CREEK POWER STATION, HYDROGEN PLANT
Renewables developer Edify Energy is proposing to develop the Majors Creek Sol Solar Power Station and a hydrogen generation plant in the Lansdown Eco-industrial Precinct.
The power station is to supply industrial cu customers in the precinct as well as broader North Qu Queensland customers and has been approved to ge generate 200MW of power.
It will consist of both solar generation and ba battery storage and is to be built on a 720ha site
3.5 3.5km from the precinct.
Edify Energy chief executive John Cole (p (pictured) told the breakfast event they were undertaking d detailed design on the power station and that its capital cost would be close to $600m.
He said they were “moving forward” with the development application process for the hydrogen generation plant.
TOWNSVILLE ENERGY CHEMICALS HUB
Asx-listed Queensland Pacific Metals is planning to produce battery chemicals nickel and cobalt sulfate, as well as iron ore, magnesium and high purity alumina, at a refinery using new Direct Nickel process technology in the Lansdown Eco-industrial Precinct.
A prefeasibility study has costed a plant processing 600,000 tonnes of nickel ore a year, shipped to Townsville from New Caledonia, at $650m, including a $100m contingency.
But the company last month announced it would scale up the project to process 1.2-1.5 million tonnes of f ore because of the demand for nickel and cobalt from players l including the world’s largest battery manufacturer, Korea’s LG Chem. Queensland Pacific Metals chief executive Stephen Grocott (pictured) told the breakfast they aimed to be in production in the second half of 2023.
BATTERY MANUFACTURING FACTORY
The Imperium3 Townsville consortium plans a $3bn 18 gigawatt hour capacity battery bat cell manufacturing plant — to be developed in stages — at Lansdown Eco-industrial Precinct. Asx-listed Magnis Energy Technologies is a oneth third stakeholder in the consortium, which last year an announced it would proceed to lodge a de development application with Townsville City Co Council following a feasibility study.
The players include US battery technology de developer C4V and Australian fund manager Bo Boston Energy and Innovation who are also in involved in similar plans in the US.
Magnis M chairman Frank Poullas and Jack Robertson (pictured) said a stage 1, 6 gigawatt hour battery manufacturing facility was planned to start at Lansdown in the first quarter of 2023, subject to offtake agreements and project funding, and ready in 2024.