“I was determined I was going to get better…to always hope.”

This is the story of Frances.
A loving wife, mother, grandmother, Queensland battler, and cancer survivor.

Please help us to raise $600,000 by June 30, to create hope for
Queensland’s unsung cancer heroes, like Frances.

When I first met Frances, she had just started volunteering for Cancer Council Queensland. The year was 1993, before she had been diagnosed with cancer.

Frances, the youngest of 10 children, had a tragic family history of cancer. She had lost three brothers and one of her four sisters to the disease. She didn’t know then that she too would be impacted by cancer, not once, but twice.

Frances says she will never forget the shock of her first diagnosis, in 1993, at age 49.

“I’ll never forget the expression on my husband Bob’s face when the doctor told us I had a cancerous carcinoma on my lung…he went white…it took a while for it to hit me.”

There’s no way of knowing what caused Frances’ lung carcinoma. But there is a way of knowing how to treat it. And that’s research.

And that’s why we so urgently need you to make a donation today, to continue the pace of research and end the tragic toll that cancer takes on our lives.

Frances survived the delicate surgery and endured six weeks of radiation.

And then, just two years later, when she thought she was in the clear, cancer struck again.

This time it was breast cancer.

“I was shocked when a routine mammogram found the lump…my specialist sent me straight away for a full body scan, in case I had other cancers that hadn’t been detected.

“I was determined I was going to live and see my three grandchildren grow up. I was determined I was going to get better.”

We badly need your donation to fund new research right here in Queensland, by world-leading researchers like former Australian of the Year and friend, Professor Ian Frazer.

I caught up with Ian recently and told him about Frances. He shared with me his thoughts on Frances’ story and his vision of cancer in the future:

“Frances sends a very important message that cancer is survivable, that you can live beyond cancer.

“If I didn’t believe there was hope for a cure, I wouldn’t be working so hard to find it.

“The other thing I am certain of is that without funding for research, there is no hope of a cure, and many lives will be needlessly lost.”

Our goal is to raise $600,000 by June 30. Our vision is for a cancer free future.

Please, I urge you, make a donation today and invest in a future free from cancer.

Alternatively, you can call us on 1300 663 936 to make a donation over the phone.