Mum fights cancer, homelessness as housing crisis worsens in Townsville

A brave single mum, who was diagnosed with a rare cancer and forced into homelessness while searching for affordable rentals in Townsville, says she had no other option but to relocate.

Katie Peacock-Fisher has been diagnosed with a rare type of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in June. 

A brave single mum, who was diagnosed with a rare cancer and forced into homelessness while searching for affordable rentals in Townsville, says she had no other option but to relocate.

Katie Peacock-Fisher was homeless and desperately searching for an affordable place to live with her two daughters when she was diagnosed with a rare type of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in June. 

Her family had been forced out of their home in Oonoonba as the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) prepares to come to an end in 2026 amid a national housing crisis. 

Unable to afford full market rent without the NRAS subsidy, and with the property owner’s intention to sell the property, the solo mum spent months scrambling to find an affordable rental for her family to move into before their 12-month lease agreement ended on June 6. 

Katie Peacock-Fisher has a rare type of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

But after months of having dozens of rental applications denied for different properties across Townsville, the family found themselves temporarily homeless. 

“It was really disheartening to be constantly knocked back — we were going to inspection after inspection where the lines of people were out the door, and sometimes queuing down the footpath,” she said.

Ms Peacock-Fisher said she felt they had no other option but to leave Townsville — where they had resided since 2015 — to find more affordable housing elsewhere. 

To make the situation even more stressful, she received a shocking cancer diagnosis just days before they left Townsville, requiring her to undergo surgery, a bone biopsy and start chemotherapy and immunotherapy straight away. 

“It’s a rare aggressive and malignant type of lymphoma at stage 2 — having all of this happen at once has been very stressful,” Ms Peacock-Fisher said.

“When I got sick at the end of last year and had my gall bladder removed in December, I also had to stop working as a relief school officer (casual teacher’s aide)”. 

“It has added a lot of pressure physically, mentally and financially to be dealing with so much all at once; housing, health, finances, career.” 

Not having anywhere to house their sentimental and household belongings, she packed it all into storage in Townsville.

They were homeless and living with friends in the South Burnett region for about a month before finally finding a new place to call home on the outskirts of Nanango on July 7. 

The family have relocated and have had the essentials supplied by local community organisations like the Salvation Army Kingaroy and Nanango Community Op Shop, but haven’t been able to afford to get their belongings out of storage and trucked down from Townsville.

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help the family get back on their feet during this hard time. 

You can help here: https://gofund.me/db66a920

Originally published as Mum fights cancer, homelessness as housing crisis worsens in Townsville