Caidan’s Reach funds new education program to support young people with cancer

A Melbourne schoolteacher who died of a rare cancer has left a legacy that will help students with cancer continue their education.

Young teacher Caidan Potter died from a rare cancer and has left behind a legacy that will fund a new program to support VCE teens with cancer. Picture: Supplied

To her family she was their sunshine; to her students an inspiration and now Caidan Potter will be forever remembered as a lifesaver.

The 23-year-old Melbourne primary school teacher’s legacy is Caidan’s Reach, a fund established by her close family and many friends for research into the rare sarcoma that took her life in 2021, just six weeks after she married the love of her life Nick Potter.

Through the Victorian Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Service hosted at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Caidan’s Reach is funding a new targeted education program to help support young people with cancer to do their VCE and transition to higher education. It is a fitting legacy for the passionate teacher.

In 2020 Caidan was the first person diagnosed with pancreatic spindle cell sarcoma. So rare, says Jeremy Lewin, that little was known about it worldwide.

Caidan Potter’s family said she had hope right up until the last minute and wanted to make a difference. Picture: Supplied

The medical director of the AYA service and a medical oncologist at Peter Mac, Dr Lewin said Caidan was an incredibly impressive individual determined to help others.

With her family’s permission Dr Lewin and colleagues wrote about Caidan’s tumour in the Journal of the Royal College of Pathologist of Australasia to help raise awareness.

“Thanks to Caidan, we are understanding more about sarcomas in young people and the importance of accessing novel technologies,” he said.

“One of the things really important to Caidan was to reflect on her experience and make sure that what she went through was known to the academic community so that people may have better experiences or outcomes.”

Dr Lewin said Caidan allowed for her tumour to be sent for a novel type of sequencing and that may help identify these tumours more quickly and change the landscape of future treatment.

Sarcomas are a rare group of cancers that usually occur in the bones and connective tissue such as fat and muscle. For Caidan, her tumour was on her pancreas and found 18 months after she started feeling unwell.

Her mum Megan Solomon and stepfather Paul said Caidan put up a brave fight for the next year, never giving up hope.

“She physically went through so much and suffered significantly,” Mrs Solomon said. “I didn’t want her to be on a research program, I thought it was too much for her, but she said, ‘mum, if I don’t do this, who is going to? I can’t have anybody else going through this’.

“She had hope right up until the last minute. She just wanted to make a difference to other people and for us it was a no-brainer doing something to continue her legacy.”

Her family said Caidan’s Reach is about giving Caidan a meaningful voice in this world. Picture: Supplied

Caidan was always a teacher: of netball and dancing and then as a primary school teacher.

“She was only there for one term but Caidan made an impact,” Mrs Solomon said of her only daughter.

“She had a grade 3 class and recently a grade six teacher asked her students to write a letter about someone who had impacted their life. Seven of the 28 wrote about Caidan.

The next Caidan’s Reach Fighting Sarcoma Cancer Gala will be held in Melbourne on Saturday 13 May.

Last year it raised more than $100,000 and already this year’s event is a sell out with planning underway for the 2024 event.

“This is about giving Caidan a meaningful voice in this world,” Mrs Solomon said.

“She was our sunshine.”

For more information, visit https://memorialgift.petermac.org.au/caidanpotter