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General News

15 April, 2021

Audrey aiming to change local lives with bowel cancer awareness story, one conversation at a time

“Get your poo checked”. It’s a simple yet somewhat confronting suggestion, but one with a much deeper meaning for local Audrey Bartlett and her Maryborough VicRoads colleagues who hope it’ll start a bigger conversation, and potentially save...

By Christie Harrison

Every Tuesday Maryborough VicRoads’ Audrey Bartlett and Donna Lanfranchi can be seen sporting colourful red and green socks. While it’s a bit of fun in the office, the socks carry an incredibly important message — they’re the official colours for bowel cancer, which Audrey was diagnosed with in 2018 and is now hoping her story will make people more aware of the disease.
Every Tuesday Maryborough VicRoads’ Audrey Bartlett and Donna Lanfranchi can be seen sporting colourful red and green socks. While it’s a bit of fun in the office, the socks carry an incredibly important message — they’re the official colours for bowel cancer, which Audrey was diagnosed with in 2018 and is now hoping her story will make people more aware of the disease.

“Get your poo checked”. It’s a simple yet somewhat confronting suggestion, but one with a much deeper meaning for local Audrey Bartlett and her Maryborough VicRoads colleagues who hope it’ll start a biggerconversation, and potentially save a life.

Audrey received a shock diagnosis in 2018, when she learnt she had bowel cancer.

Falling outside of the criteria used to get checked for the disease, Audrey is now hoping her story willprompt others to keep bowel cancer on their mind if they notice any subtle changes, something she and her doctor initially dismissed as irritable bowel syndrome.

“For about 18 months before I was diagnosed I started having symptoms with bowel movements,but it was when the pain started that I knew it wasn’t normal,” Audrey said.

“I’d been going to my doctor about not feeling well for quite a while and it was passed off as irritable bowel syndrome.

“I had just started at VicRoads in2018, and I got really sick and sent home one day. The next day I got worse so I came into hospital which is when I got sent in for a scan. I wasn’t expecting anything unusual to come back.”

But the scan revealed the true cause behind Audrey’s symptoms — at just 42, she had developed bowel cancer.

“I didn’t fit the criteria for it,” she said.

“I’m not in the right age group (over 50), I don’t smoke, don’t drink very often, I wasn’t losing weight rapidly. It didn’t make sense so they didn’t think to test for it. I was 42 and had no family history of it, I wasn’t expecting it at all.”

The diagnosis started six months of chemotherapy which at first appeared to be effective, but by early 2019 signs started to show the cancer was back.

“The chemo seemed to be effective as far as everyone knew. During the regular check ups after the chemo the doctor does a blood test which tells you the level of tumours in your system,” Audrey said.

“Mine stayed low to start with but by the time I went back in around March 2019 it was increasing. The doctors said they knew there was a tumour there, but they just couldn’t find it. I had to wait nine months for it to present itself so they knew where to treat because they couldn’t see it on the scans.

“In January 2020 the cancer had grown and popped up in different areas. Unfortunately it’s travelled to the peritoneal lining (abdominal cavity lining) which has no veins, so chemo can’t treat it.”

Since then Audrey has been on a trial which uses a combination of chemo drugs and tablets, and while it’s not a cure, it’s so far been effective.

“It’s purely a time buying exercise,” she said.

“I’ve been on the trial nearly a year now and at the moment, those drugs have meant my tumours aren’t growing, they’re stable. Buteventually the cancer works out what the drugs are trying to do and it will stop working, they’ll start growing again. Then we’ll look at what options are available for me.”

There are 296 Australians diagnosed with bowel cancer per week, and it claims the lives of 5336 people a year.

Although it’s Australia’s second deadliest cancer, it is also one of the most treatable types of cancer if found early.

Audrey is now hoping that increasing awareness of bowel cancer, with the help of VicRoadscolleague Donna Lanfranchi, will help others in the community identify it early.

“I’ve found a lot of people don’t know how to talk about cancer, particularly bowel cancer. It’s confronting,” she said.

“The thing is if you don’t talk about it, it can get away from you.

“Around 12 months ago the beautiful Donna really jumped on board. She contacted Bowel Cancer Australia and got posters with information and ever since then Tuesday’s been bowel cancer awareness day for us.

“Since we’ve had the posters up, nearly every day I’ve worked someones said to me ‘I’ve had bowel cancer’ or ‘my husband died of bowel cancer’. People just don’t talk about it. If I’d known maybe 12 months earlier than when I was diagnosed, maybe things would’ve been different.

“There can be good outcomes if you catch it early.”

According to the Australian Cancer ATLAS which tracks cancer rates by locality, the most recent data collected between 2012 and 2016 showed Maryborough’s bowelcancer diagnosis rate was 27 percent higher than the Australia average.

The rate of excess deaths from the cancer was 21 percent above the national average.

To help spread the message to the community, every Tuesday Donna puts on her green and red socks — the official colours of bowel cancer — which she said is a great conversation starter.

“I love Audrey, and I can’t get a magic wand and fix everything, but at least I’m doing something,” Donna said.

“Everyone asks about the socks and I’m happy to let them know and raise awareness. A lot of people don’t know that green and red are for bowel cancer, it’s a conversation starter.”

With a collection jar sitting permanently on the VicRoads counter with bowel cancer pins for sale, Donna said every dollar counts.

“We’ve had the jar on the counter for about 12 months, including during COVID and we’ve raised about $500,” she said.

“In the grand scheme of things $500, or the maybe $4-5 in change we get each day is not a lot of money, but if that money is part of that research funding that finds a cure, that’s the best $4-5 anyone’s spent.”

Australians aged between 50 and 74 receive a free home bowel cancer screening kit in the mail as part of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.

Kits generally arrive within six months of your birthday and the test is simple to take.

If you’re unsure if you’re eligible for the program, contact the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program on 1800 118 868.

To find out more about bowel cancer, visit www.bowelcancer australia.org.

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