On a Friday morning in May, newly elected state MP Eden Foster was working at her desk in her Mulgrave electorate office when she noticed a small lump on the side of her neck, about the size of a jelly bean.
“A lot of people get inflamed glands when they get sick … but I’ve never had that,” she said. “So I thought this was odd.”
Labor MP Eden Foster, who replaced Daniel Andrews in the seat of Mulgrave, will return to Parliament this month after her shock diagnosis.Credit: Simon Schluter
Despite having no other symptoms, Foster, 43, immediately scheduled an appointment to see her GP, who initially suggested it may have been a reactive gland responding to the stress of her new job as a politician, or even an underlying virus.
“I was pretty certain I wanted to have it explored, very quickly,” Foster said.
While she knew it may be unhelpful, Foster, a clinical psychologist, had already done some initial research on “Dr Google” and demanded blood tests to rule out something more harmful.
Foster’s blood test results came back clear, but she pushed again, and was sent for an ultrasound, a CT scan, and eventually an MRI and biopsy, which confirmed she had cancer.
Premier Jacinta Allan, right, with Foster in November 2023, shortly after she was elected.Credit: Wayne Taylor
The lump was a sign of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), an aggressive type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The devastating diagnosis came just months after she was elected to state parliament to replace Daniel Andrews in the seat of Mulgrave.
When she received the call confirming her diagnosis, Foster was on a day trip to the Mornington Peninsula with a friend. They had just finished up at a chocolatier when her phone rang.
The Labor MP says she initially chose not to share the devastating news with her friend because she didn’t want to burden her. Instead she drove to their next destination holding back floods of tears.
“I didn’t want it to ruin her day. So I held it, tried to hold back the tears whilst driving,” she said.
Friends and family rallied around her over the past four months as she underwent a gruelling combination of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and steroids on a three-week cycle. Public Transport Minister Gabrielle Williams, who will shave her head this month to raise money for cancer research, often chauffeured her to medical appointments.
According to the Leukaemia Foundation, the first symptom of DLBCL is often painless swelling in the neck, armpit or groin. Other symptoms can include fevers, night sweats and unexplained weight loss.
But Foster never noticed any other symptoms, other than the lump in her neck. Her advocacy led to early detection, which her doctors say can result in a 90 per cent cure rate with first-line treatment.
She hopes her prompt diagnosis and early intervention will encourage others to visit their GP if they notice any unusual changes. While praising her GP for responding to her requests for answers, Foster says she could easily have been a “victim of being dismissed”.
Eden Foster plans to return to Parliament this month, less than six months after she first noticed a cancerous lump in her neck.Credit: Simon Schluter
“Don’t be afraid to be thought of as a hypochondriac,” she said.
“If something feels different, then go and see the doctor and sometimes be assertive with your doctor. If you feel that you’re being dismissed, be a bit more assertive and ask for further tests to rule out things.
“My specialist said to me that had I not had treatment, I’d only have six months,” she said.
The backbencher MP, who was elected to parliament last November, has slowly started returning to the office but plans to make it back to Spring Street for a scheduled sitting week of parliament starting on October 15.
Foster said her cancer treatment has been “gruelling” and admits that some days she feels sorry for herself and has a “good cry”, despite trying to implement coping strategies she tried to teach others as a psychologist.
“It doesn’t have to be a death sentence. Unfortunately, in some cases it is, sadly, but in many cases it’s not,” she said.
“Our science is at a stage where cancer can be treatable as long as we get on top of it quickly and early.”
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