Gold Coast mother diagnosed with uveal melanoma in 2019 after an optometrist discovered a tumour during a routine exam
A Coast woman battling a rare cancer has a serious health warning as her family tries to raise $450k for lifesaving treatment
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A 52-year-old “fierce warrior” is urging others to have regular optician visits after she lost an eye to a rare cancer that has now spread to her liver.
“Get your eyes checked annually, you can’t see what may be lurking behind them,” said Diane Barry, who was diagnosed with uveal melanoma in 2019 after an optometrist discovered a tumour during a routine exam.
Two weeks later the mother-of-three had her eye removed after being told the tumour was “aggressive and large”.
“Our lives were devastated and our world fell apart,” said daughter Chloe Simons.
Weeks later Mrs Barry attended Melbourne Cup celebrations, full of positivity and determination, and then she got back to living a cancer-free life with monocular vision.
But in November 2020, a cancer screening found spots on her liver; the same cancer had metastasised. With no standard of care globally recognised for this even rarer form of cancer, she was offered immunotherapy with a 10 per cent effective rate.
Surgery isn’t an option because there’s no part of her liver that is disease free.
Her family discovered a treatment in the UK called chemosaturation, whereby the liver is sealed from the body’s blood circulation, allowing targeted delivery of anti-cancer drugs at more concentrated doses than systemic chemotherapy.
According to HCA Healthcare UK, by saturating the whole liver, both visible and undetected tumours can be targeted.
“This is not done in Australia at all and Mum will have to travel to the UK for this treatment. It is not covered by the National Health Service over there so will have to be self-funded treatment,” said Mrs Simons.
Each treatment costs $A80,000 per session and it is expected Mrs Barry will need six of these in order to give her a fighting chance.
As such, Mrs Simons has set up a Go Fund Me page, Help Di Barry — Life Saving Rare Cancer Treatment, to raise money to help save her mother’s life.
Recently confirmed as a suitable candidate for the procedure, Mrs Barry must have money in place for her first three treatments as well as logistics for relocating to the UK sorted, where she used to live in 2012.
“This is a huge trip let alone combating lifesaving, rare cancer treatments. But I am a fierce warrior and I will survive,” said Mrs Barry.
“Time is of the essence. My liver disease cannot be over 50 per cent for suitability, and I’m currently at 20 per cent. But my strong mindset, positivity and self-healing belief is working at ridding this disease out of my body.”
Mrs Simons said her mother, who also has two grandchildren, was a real estate agent that lived in Jimboomba for two years before moving to the Gold Coast in 2014.
“Mum has always been one of life’s givers. A wonderful, loving mother, she has devoted her life to her children and taking care of everyone around her. She never asks for anything, she just quietly shines away making life wonderful for everyone who is lucky enough to meet her,” she said.
“Even with the journey she has travelled in the last year, she continues to shine, stay positive and make sure that everyone else is okay, desperate to save everyone from pain.”
COAST TEACHER'S SERIOUS HEALTH WARNING - FEB 4 2021
MUSIC teacher Susannah Callaghan has battled reccuring Stage 3C ovarian cancer since 2018, but she’s determined to see her nine-week-old grandson start school.
“As a teacher for more than 20 years, there’s nothing more special than watching a child start prep, and this is why I’ll do whatever I can to survive,” said the 49-year-old through tears.
“I also want to warn women around my age that it may not be perimenopause, it may not be just irritable bowel or that you’re working too hard or that you over did it at the gym.
“It may be cancer.”
Ms Callaghan, of Nerang, has worked as a music teacher at various schools including Surfers Paradise Primary School, Miami State School and Varsity College.
She’s also co-ordinated Australia’s largest musical program, Music Count Us In. This is a dual massed choir event whereby 1000 primary school children perform.
Since her diagnosis she’s been unable to work and instead has had invasive surgeries, relentless rounds of chemotherapy and a myriad of drugs to slow down her ovarian cancer.
The disease usually has no symptoms until it’s too late, and according to the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, 60 per cent of all cases are diagnosed when they are at Stage 3.
Ms Callaghan had a sore hip for a couple of weeks but didn’t think much of it, then a few days later she had a different pilates instructor who did 20 minutes of abdominal work.
“The next day I had excruciating back pain, so much so that it took my breath away. I thought maybe it was an urinary tract infection. That was the Tuesday. I took the Wednesday off to see my doctor and was sent for CAT scans and bloods.”
She never made it to a special choral event with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra planned for Friday night. Doctors found a 12cm lump in her right ovary and a 9cm one on her left and she was immediately scheduled for surgery.
After intensive chemotherapy she got fit and in 2019 was in remission.But sadly, during a trip to the UK to meet her uncle for the first time, she felt a niggle and knew the cancer had returned. She spent 2020 isolated and going through more chemo.
Ms Callaghan is now pinning her hopes on expensive genome testing, in which doctors read the entire genetic blueprint of a cancer cell and compare it to a patient’s healthy cells to see how the DNA has mutated.
“I’m hopeful they’ll be able to find something that might help my cancer go away,” she said.
“When I was diagnosed at just 47 I thought I wouldn’t ever get to see grandchildren, but Owen is such a delight and I just want to live to see him grow up.”
Rebecca Muino set up a mycause page for her friend, Susannah Callaghan Ovarian Cancer Cause, to fund genome testing and costs associated with being out of work.
Ms Callaghan, who now takes pleasure in letting Owen fall asleep in her arms, the sound of laughter and gardening, wants women to listen carefully to their bodies.
“Please honour your body,” she said.
“If I can save just one life by speaking out then it will have been worth it.”
Mum’s emotional warning as she fights for life - Feb 2020
JOSIE Davoren is no stranger to fighting the most lethal women’s cancer – this is her second battle with ovarian cancer in just two years.
But the gutsy 50-year-old from Banora Point has plenty of fight in her and is passionate about wanting to share her journey to warn other women.
“If I can just help at least one woman from going through this then that would be just wonderful,” she said.
“If something doesn’t feel quite right or if you’re not sure about something, even just a small lump, then get it checked out because the sooner they can detect it the better the outcome will be,” she said.
Speaking from her hospital bed just three days after an eight-hour debulking surgery to rid her body of cancer, Ms Davoren initially attributed the early signs of her ovarian cancer to onset of menopause.
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“In the beginning I was 49 and just thought I was going through the change of life. I have always eaten very good food and did a reasonable amount of exercise but I was getting a round pot belly tummy,” she said.
The divorcee stepped up her exercise by doing a bit more walking and reduced her calorie intake but still noticed bloating and thought she might have irritable bowel syndrome.
“Then on my right-hand side I found a lump in my pelvic area, so I went to my GP who sent me away for scans,” she said.
Following investigative surgery doctors found she had stage 2 cancer and scheduled surgery in July, 2018 to remove it. This included having a full hysterectomy and the removal of her fallopian tubes, ovaries and appendix.
GOLD COAST PERRY BROS CIRCUS ICON FIGHTS OVARIAN CANCER
After six rounds of chemotherapy at Tweed Heads she lost her hair, her sense of taste but felt positive she had kicked the deadly disease to the kerb.
“Everyone kept saying we’ve got it all and you’ve had your chemotherapy so I was quite positive about it,” she said.
Follow-up scans were clear until November last year when a PET scan had an anomaly and “came up with bright spots”.
Ms Davoren’s specialist at the Gold Coast University Hospital said her cancer had spread to her bowel and diaphragm and on Friday she underwent a gruelling eight-hour debulking surgery to remove bits of cancer from her pelvic area to her breastbone.
She’s not out of the woods yet, with another six rounds of chemotherapy ahead of her and financial worries because she’s going to have to take leave without pay to fight her cancer - again.
“Having a reoccurrence was more devastating than my initial diagnosis, I thought I’d beaten it. But I’m a mother of two and I want to see my children grow up and have grandchildren so I’m staying positive,” she said.
“I can’t but help think that perhaps if I’d gone to have a pap smear earlier, where they also check your abdomen, it might have made a difference.”
GOLD COAST’S MOST DEADLY JUNCTIONS REVEALED
Every year more than 1500 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and more than 1000 will die. Only 46 per cent of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer will survive five years post diagnosis.
Today is Teal Ribbon Day, the flagship day of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and this year the organisation is holding its first matched giving day whereby every donation received today at ovarinacancer.net.au will be tripled by partners and major donors.
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