Canberra mother Melanie Swan was passionate about raising funds for groundbreaking research at the University of Canberra into late-stage breast cancer before her death due to the disease last year at the age of 43.
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Her efforts led to tens of thousand of dollars being raised for University of Canberra researcher Professor Sudha Rao and her team, who are on the brink of significant advancements in the treatment of metastatic cancer.
Her family including husband Scott Chamberlain and parents David and Coral Swan were also supportive of Professor Rao's work and continue to be so, as they, and Melanie and Scott's daughters Emma and Sophie face life without her,
A fundraising night for the research, in Melanie's honour, will be held on March 16 at Dendy Cinemas in the city from 6pm to 9pm. The movie is Miss You Already starring Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette.
All money raised at the event will go directly to the cancer research being undertaken at UC.
Professor Suda Rao will also be talking about the impact of her research at this event.
Mr Swan said he hoped the movie night would "honour our precious and courageous daughter's memory and in the shared hope offered by the work of Professor Rao and her team that women with metastatic breast cancer will not have to suffer like Mel suffered".
David Swan on behalf of his wife Coral and himself has written a heartfelt statement about the loss of their beloved daughter and the importance of ongoing research into late-stage breast cancer:
"Mel's passing on October 1, 2016 has been quickly followed by important family celebrations, such as her and Scott's second wedding anniversary (in November), then Christmas quickly followed by Mel's birthday in early January, the birthdays of her two siblings (also in January) and the birthday of her first born, Emma, last month.
Each event has been particularly poignant as Mel's absence has been keenly felt. Each day in fact invokes Mel's memory and with it a feeling of sadness and loss in the pit of one's stomach.
I have reflected on Mel's five-year battle with breast cancer. I realise now just how much she must have suffered, both physically and emotionally. In addition to the life-threatening nature of the disease itself, Mel also had to cope with the toxic effects of the treatment she had to endure in the hope her life might be spared long enough so that she could be beside Scott and see her two little girls reach adulthood. Sadly, this was not to be but we take some comfort in our belief she is in a better place now pain free.
Despite the physical and emotional trauma involved, Mel tended to shield us from realising the full impact of what she was enduring as she was not one to complain, even in the last month or so spent at home with Coral and I, with intermittent stays in hospital. When asked each morning how she felt, Mel would say to me she was "OK". Seeing she was not at all well, I changed tack and instead rephrased my question by asking her to describe her condition as compared with a day, say some days before, when she had been clearly so very unwell. Mel answered, "about the same, Dad". My heart aches anew when I recall these exchanges.
Mel experienced only a relatively short period of apparent remission and the very occasional test result that suggested the cancer had not spread. Otherwise, the progress of the disease was unrelenting, with the latter stages of Mel's life a battle to achieve a tolerable balance between maintaining a quality of life that sufficiently offset the deleterious effects of the disease and her treatment. Once it was found some 6 months or so before she passed away the cancer had spread into her liver, Mel's battle became a daily challenge with the quality of life in progressive, and rapid decline, particularly in the last month or so of her life.
Using Mel's experience as an example, both Coral and I consider the invaluable research work being undertaken by Professor Rao and her dedicated team offer real hope of significant ground breaking improvements in the treatment of women with metastatic breast cancer, hopefully with much less suffering.
Mel's treatment effectively commenced with the surgical removal of her left breast. This was followed by a course of interventions over time that relied on chemotherapy and radiation treatment to contain the disease. Chemotherapy was usually accompanied by particularly nasty side effects, such as nausea and exhaustion. This required offsetting medication and blood transfusions so Mel could function and have a reasonable quality of life.
Added to this regime, Mel underwent a regular round of tests so that her Oncologist could detect a trend that enabled him to establish the effectiveness of the treatment and to assess the disease's progress. Tests included CT scans that involve the use of a dye that can impact on the kidneys, an additional burden on a body already under siege having to fight a life-threatening disease as well as coping with the debilitating treatments of chemotherapy. In addition, before each round of tests, usually every 3 months, brought with it mounting anxiety for Mel, Scott and the family as the day for the test approached.
Like other women today, Mel commenced chemotherapy uncertain and with no assurance it would work. The test being developed by Professor Rao and her team is aimed to establish the likelihood of whether a proposed course of chemotherapy is likely to work even before any treatment begins. This same test could also be used as an early warning system to establish soon after a woman's treatment has begun whether the treatment prescribed is working or not. In addition to reducing the need for women to have to undergo the many tests Mel had to endure following chemotherapy, the community stands to profit too from these tests as there are significant savings that could be made from the early cessation of ineffective treatment and the reduction in the use of current post-treatment tests.
When Mel reached the stage when she could no longer tolerate chemotherapy, Professor Rao and her team postulated using Mel's blood that she may respond positively to treatment involving immunotherapy. This was supported by subsequent tests to be the case, with the first test results very encouraging, but Mel's liver was so compromised by this time that she passed away shortly after only two treatments with immunotherapy.
Professor Rao and her team continue to investigate based on Mel's experience the likely effectiveness of combining immunotherapy with chemotherapy in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. This on-going research offers women not only the possibility of a better response but also a reduction in the debilitating side effects associated with using chemotherapy alone that Mel so stoically endured until she found she could no longer tolerate it.
However, immunotherapy for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer is still experimental and is not available on the PBS. Anyone wishing to access this treatment, as in Mel's case, must find the funds to do so.
Professor Rao and her team are also in the process of developing drugs that in laboratory trials suggest they can be very effective in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. These trials are now moving towards clinical development
Mel recognised the significant benefits offered to women in her position by the research being undertaken by Professor Rao and her team. Despite the debilitating effects of her disease and the treatments, Mel continued until the end of her life to involve herself in fund raising efforts in support of this ground-breaking research work. We continue to support, together with Scott, our relatives and Mel's close friends, fund raising efforts for this work, such as the film night on 16 March 2017, to honour our precious and courageous daughter's memory and in the shared hope offered by the work of Professor Rao and her team that women with metastatic breast cancer will not have to suffer like Mel suffered.
The funds raised at the movie night are essential to help Professor Rao and her team establish protocols to rapidly test many patient bloods compared to the small number that can currently be managed. The funds will also allow Professor Rao and her team to refine the protocols so that personalised medicine tests using different combinations of drugs on patient bloods can guide Oncologists as to what treatment may be most beneficial to the patient."
