Today we wanted to take a closer and more personal look into the impact of bowel cancer on Australian families. We would like to share Vicki’s story from NSW. Vicki, is a 57 year old woman who sadly has passed away from bowel cancer. Vicki’s story begins when she and her husband, Peter went for medical advice for an unrelated breathing problem. During this time, the health professional detected cancer, which surprised the whole family as she was living with it for 5 years. Without this accidental find, there had not been any persistent symptoms.

Cancer is one of those things that you think happens to someone else and it is a shock when it comes to your own household. It doesn’t need to be a death sentence, but the odds are difficult to beat. It takes someone exceptional to deal with it as bravely as Vicki did.

– Peter, husband

Due to late detection and screening, Vicki passed away. The cost of bowel cancer took not only Vicki’s life, but impacted the family in more than one way. Emotionally, it was a frustrating situation for the family. Wanting to help but unsure of how. It was heartbreaking knowing that time was short and that there was not much that could be done to prevent or stop the cancer from spreading. It was disruptive in the family’s life, making all family members finding it difficult to cope and deal with the situation.

On a financial level, it meant that the family had a number of costs to cover. This included the medical retirement, specialist treatment, hospitalisation and full time care. Family members would need to stop working to provide full time care, but at the same time miss precious moments with Vicki in order to cover bills and treatment costs.

The family collected donations and raised $1,699 at the time. After the passing of Vicki, the family managed to raise a total of $4,000.