‘Immense grief’: Workers abandoned by employers during cancer battles

Sue Woodall was left out of work and feeling purposeless after her breast cancer battle, but believes other cancer battlers should not have to sacrifice their vocations in pursuit of good health.

Clinical Oncology Society of Australia policy adviser and LiveWorkCancer founder Sue Woodall.

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Cancer patients have been left destitute by the irreparable career damage tied to their treatment, with patient advocates warning employers have freely neglected workplace discrimination laws in cutting contracts for sickly workers.

Clinical Oncology Society of Australia policy developer Sue Woodall has felt the impact of cancer’s “financial toxicity” first-hand, losing a vaunted career in the public service to her battle with breast cancer.

Diagnosed in 2020, her costs from lost employment were five times that of her out-of-pocket medical bills.

Ms Woodall, then in her late 50s, was at a point of ascendancy in her career, having entered the public service with a senior state government role in procurement. Her breast cancer diagnosis a year and a half later scuppered aspirations of further progress.

She tried to negotiate a pathway back to work through her treatment, but as the full extent of her chemotherapy symptoms became clear, those hopes diminished and the timeline to return stretched out. Her employer eventually made it clear they could not hold her role for her.

“Once I came back from my first infusion, it was clear that there was no way I was going to get back to work in a couple of weeks,” Ms Woodall said. “I ended up just continuing to take unpaid leave because I hadn’t been in government for very long, so I didn’t have any much leave at all.

“Long story short, they couldn’t find a pathway back.

“That was the first time that the experience of cancer caused immense grief, because it meant that I didn’t have a job. It meant that I couldn’t go and get another job, because of my brain fog, or chemo fog.

“It was a lot of grief and even anger … I started reading hundreds of documents and research papers on the impact cancer has on work and income, and that was a validation for me that this was an unmet need.”

Since founding the advocacy group LiveWorkCancer, Ms Woodall has sought to support those negotiating their entry and exit from work around their diagnosis, while pushing businesses to show compassion to the 40 per cent of cancer patients who develop the condition at working age.

It offers coaching services for individuals and workplaces, along with group counselling.

She argued many workplaces were failing to regard cancer as a disability under workplace discrimination law and lacked the mechanisms to support the entrance and exit of employees from work as they tackled a protracted health battle.

“I’ve been an executive manager or leader for many years, and I’d never thought about cancer, and I’d never thought about how I would support somebody … that was an “aha” moment. Really, it’s not my boss’s fault, it’s not my fault, it’s the system,“ Ms Woodall said. “We don’t have awareness of what a chronic illness like cancer is in the workplace, and we don’t have the resources and the policies in the supportive systems to wrap around somebody when they have experienced cancer.

“It should be that organisations understand their minimum obligations, which are legal obligations, but are going beyond that.

“We need more referral pathways for people with cancer, like coaching and support groups, but what we really need to do is to improve the understanding of the impact that cancer has on our ability to work, to maintain a sense of purpose, dignity and social connection through our workplace.”

Workplaces were failing to regard cancer as a disability under workplace discrimination law. Picture: Getty Images

While workplaces neglected their duties to employees, Ms Woodall said workers just as commonly remained ignorant of measures available to them such as income protection, salary continuance or accessing their superannuation.

“The narrative for the workplace is typically ‘oh my gosh, that’s terrible, we’re here for you’, and then it’s crickets,” she said.

“People don’t feel comfortable engaging with somebody who’s fighting cancer.

“We’ve still got a lot to contribute. We’ve still got lots of things that we can do. We just need a bit of space. We just need a bit of support, and we’ll be able to get back on to achieving, delivering and doing the work that we were doing before.”

Women were far more likely to engage with support services for cancer-induced financial strife, being more commonly asked to navigate inequitable working conditions.

The Clinical Oncology Society of Australia has developed a national road map for addressing the financial toxicity of cancer, spanning changes to state and federal laws, along with employer mandates.

Cancer Council cancer control policy director Megan Varlow said issues of workplace discrimination would grow more dire as more Australians moved into the gig economy, casual work and insecure employment.

“We know that those who have insecure employment, or who live in more socio-economically disadvantaged areas, are more likely to experience financial toxicity,” she said.

“Discrimination in the workplace due to cancer and cancer treatment is illegal, and that means that employers can’t stop people from taking leave or try to offer them a more junior role.

“We don’t want to make it the responsibility of the person who is in the midst of cancer treatment.”