Cancer survivor Melanie Jones studying to become a nurse

Melanie Jones was alone and terrified when she was given her cancer diagnosis while living in Alaska. Twenty-one years later it is a different and uplifting story.

Local mum, Melanie Jones inspired by own experience to help others.

Bundaberg mother and student Melanie Jones was diagnosed with Stage 4 cervical cancer when she was just 27 and told she would never have children.

It was devastating news.

“Obviously I just cried for days. I was in shock, as you always think ‘It won’t happen to me, I’ll be alright’,” Melanie said.

“I felt really numb and lost. I had so many unanswered questions for my new future. Will I get better? Will I need chemotherapy? Why did this happen to me?

“I had the procedure done in Alaska (where I was living at the time) to remove the cancer off my cervix. I had never felt more alone and scared than I did that day.

“Having no family with me and supporting me emotionally was really hard. So after that procedure I chose to move back to Australia and be with my family.”

Nursing student Melanie Jones was diagnosed with Stage 4 cervical cancer when she was just 27 and told she would never have children.

Twenty-one years later, Melanie has been cancer free for 17 years, and has an 11-year-old son.

She is now also studying to be a nurse so that she can help people through their cancer journey, with some help from the state government’s Fee Free Tafe for Nursing Students funding.

Melanie is in the second stage of an 18-month Diploma of Nursing at Tafe Queensland’s Bundaberg campus and on her way to becoming an enrolled nurse, and hopes to work in oncology.

“My ultimate goal in working in oncology as a nurse is to keep patients comfortable,” she said.

The Fee Free TAFE funding has relieved the financial burden.

“I probably wouldn’t have done the diploma now had it not been subsidised,” she said.