Our Donors

Many wonderful people, organisations and businesses throughout Australia gave generously this year in response to our Appeals and as members of our Monthly Giving Program. We welcomed many new supporters and were delighted to acknowledge the commitment of our donors some of whom have reached a special milestone in their giving of 25 years. We thank everyone for their ongoing generosity and dedication to saving and protecting lives from breast cancer.

We also thank the many individuals and their families who shared their personal experience of breast cancer in our communications, like Diane and Molly below.

In our Tax Appeal, Diane shared her diagnosis of triple negative breast cancer in 2020, when she was aged 44.

“It was like a punch in the guts. It was just awful because only a year before, my scan was all clear and now here I was facing an aggressive breast cancer that had the potential to devastate my entire family’s lives. I was petrified,” said Diane.

Diane endured chemotherapy, surgery to remove her right breast, and other treatments – but she found the difficult conversations she had to have with loved ones the hardest of all.

“I knew it was going to be so difficult to tell my daughter Eva that I had breast cancer, and I was terrified of leaving her and my husband Mike behind. Mike was terrified of losing me and being left to raise Eva on his own. It was awful thinking about all these scenarios, and it was traumatic telling my Dad as he had already lost my mum to cancer.”

It’s been over three years since Diane’s diagnosis, and although she feels healthy and well, her greatest fear is that her breast cancer will reoccur. “It’s something I live with on a daily basis. It never goes away, and I think that that is not an uncommon situation for cancer sufferers of any persuasion.”

Our Tax Appeal raised more than $474,000 for crucial clinical trials like TUGETHER. Developed by our researchers this trial aims to identify a new treatment option for people with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer. TUGETHER will combine Tucatinib which blocks HER2, and Pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug which boosts the body’s immune system to fight the cancer cells, with standard treatment. Our hope is that this treatment combination can prolong the lives of these patients.

Molly’s diagnosis of breast cancer came just weeks after the birth of her second daughter.

Aged just 33, with a 19-month-old toddler and a six-week-old baby, Molly and her husband Nick were reeling after being told Molly had triple negative breast cancer. But a conversation with Molly’s surgical oncologist gave Molly hope: Molly was eligible to participate in our Neo-N clinical trial.

“I went from knowing my chances were so bleak, to suddenly feeling like I had won the lotto by being put on this clinical trial. That this was going to help me live.”

Molly still had a tough and isolating road ahead of her as she commenced weekly chemotherapy and immunotherapy under the guidance of her doctors. The time spent receiving treatment and coping with side effects, meant missing out on precious moments she should have been enjoying with her baby Alice, and toddler Olivia.

Molly underwent surgery to remove the tumour and received the news she had desperately hoped for: the treatment she received had eliminated all visible signs of breast cancer.

“I’ve been given an opportunity to enjoy every age and every stage. Because you never know what’s going to happen. Even on days when my kids are yelling, and someone’s thrown a whole bowl of Cheerios and milk on the floor, I think, ‘You know what, I’m lucky to be here to see my kids throw cereal on the ground.”

Molly shared her story in our Christmas Appeal which raised more than $280,000 to support the extension of our Neo-N clinical trial. Developed by our researchers, the Neo-N clinical trial demonstrated a successful link between the use of immunotherapy, which helps boost the body’s own immune system to fight the cancer, in combination with chemotherapy to treat early stage triple negative breast cancer, with 50 per cent of trial participants found to be breast cancer free following treatment. This research outcome is significant as this type of breast cancer currently has the poorest prognosis.

The extension of this trial will aim to build on this new and potentially life-changing knowledge. Our supporters responded generously, and many sent messages of support to Molly and other women like her.