Former governor-general Dame Quentin Bryce has backed efforts to have a life-extending breast cancer drug that costs $5000 a month listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and made cheaper as she returned to Canberra to support the third annual Pink Lady luncheon.
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The luncheon at the National Gallery of Australia heard Breast Cancer Australia Network chief executive officer Christine Nolan outline attempts by the network to lobby federal politicians to list Ribociclib and palbociclib which belong to a new class of drugs called CDK4/6 Inhibitors.
BCNA has been advocating strongly for the CDK inhibitors to be listed on the PBS so that Australian women who can benefit from the drugs can access them at an affordable price.
The drugs are used to treat a particular kind of metastatic cancer, stopping its progression for up to two years, Ms Nolan told the audience.
"It means women can travel, go to work, look after the kids, have a normal life rather than start chemotherapy straight away," she said.
Ms Nolan urged the 200 participants at the lunch to write to their local member to pressure the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee to list the drugs.
She was "really hopeful" the drugs could be included on the PBS in 2018, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of Breast Cancer Network Australia, the peak national organisation for Australians affected by breast cancer.
Ms Nolan said since she had taken on the role of CEO more than two years ago, the number of women being diagnosed with breast cancer had risen from 42 to 48 a day.
Dame Quentin, patron of Breast Cancer Network Australia, supported efforts by the network to lobby politicians and urge breast cancer patients and survivors to join the campaign.
"That's what I admire about that network, that it's giving all that information and supporting women and doing that in a political way as well and standing up and saying, 'Please write'," she said.
"The most important tool we have is our voice.
"And I think this is something everyone would feel very strongly about, having access to treatment that is available, that some people can afford but all people with breast cancer need access to."
Dame Quentin said being at the luncheon meant "an enormous amount to me", helping to lay the foundation for the network by chairing the National Breast Cancer Centre's advisory network more than two decades ago.
"I'm 74 so I've seen very many close friends and family members with breast cancer. I think that's experience of all of us and I think that's why you see such a response to a wonderful occasion such as this," she said.
"There's some sadness about it as you listen to those wonderful reflections but of course it's an occasion for us to recognise and acknowledge the marvellous advances that have been made in the diagnosis and support for women with breast cancer."
Breast cancer survivor and Canberra mum-of-four Cate Hall also spoke about how Breast Cancer Australia Network had been her anchor in a storm of uncertainty when she was diagnosed with the disease in early 2011.
She said the very practical approach of the network helped her to decipher the information overload around the disease. calm her fears and not feel alone in her journey.
Ms Nolan, meanwhile, said a major effort in the network's 20th year in 2018 would be forming the biggest "pink lady" ever at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in May, comprising 18,000 people, representing the number of people diagnosed with breast cancer each year in Australia, including 144 men.
