New Brisbane You Can cancer centre to help young sufferers

QUEENSLAND’S first youth cancer centre will open in Brisbane next year, filling a gap for people aged 15 to 25 as they take on the fight of their lives.

QUEENSLAND’S first youth cancer centre will open in Brisbane next year, filling a gap for people aged 15 to 25 as they take on the fight of their lives.

The Sony Foundation will today announce funding for the You Can Centre to be built on the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital campus at Herston.

It will provide support services for adolescents and young adults with cancer, who often feel isolated during their treatment among much older patients.

The RBWH cancer care service, one of the largest in Australia, treats about 140 people aged 25 and under each year.

Cancer survivor Anika Dean with her son Talon, 2. Picture: AAP/ Ric Frearson

Leukaemia survivor Anika Dean, who will tell her story at today’s funding announcement, said she wished the centre had been open during her treatment.

“When I was going through my cancer, I didn’t have anywhere that I could speak to people my own age,” the 22-year-old said.

Anika was four months’ pregnant when tests showed she had acute myeloid leukaemia – the same cancer her father was treated for 16 years earlier. “I went numb,” she said of her diagnosis.

Anika was newly engaged at the time and she and fiance Anthony were planning their lives together with their baby.

“We wanted to have our baby, even if it meant having to put myself at risk for the sake of our unborn son,” she said.

Within nine weeks, her condition had deteriorated so badly, doctors decided to deliver son Talon by caesarean at 29 weeks, on May 29, 2016.

Soon after taking Talon home, Anika started chemotherapy.

“My hair fell out and, naturally, I became very self-conscious,” she said. “I felt uncomfortable as the other patients were always older.”

Anika said she turned to social media to find someone in a similar situation. “Unfortunately, I didn’t find anyone my age,” she said.

“I became very isolated and really struggled with depression.”

Anika has since joined the Queensland Youth Advisory Group, set up to help improve cancer care for adolescents and young adults. The group was consulted over the design of the You Can Centre, which will be built on the rooftop of the Joyce Tweddell Building.

“Life after cancer has treated me very well,” she said. “I’m getting on with life. I love being a mother. But I wish I could have had a facility like the You Can Centre when I was going through my treatment.”