Jacinta Elston and Elise Sproll were both in their 30s when they faced breast cancer diagnoses, but research shows their outcomes could have been very different.
Cancer survival rates in Australia are some of the highest in the world but some people, including Indigenous Australians and those living in regional areas, are falling behind.
Today, the federal government has launched its first-ever national cancer strategy in a bid to address the gaps in care.
Aboriginal woman Jacinta Elston, who is from north-west Queensland and has Townsville and Palm Island family ties, was in her 30s when she found a lump in her breast.
“I’d had my second child, and he was about 10 months old when [the] lump was examined,” Professor Elston said.
“Before his first birthday, I started cancer treatment.”
Professor Elston, an expert in Indigenous health policy and education who has been a consultant on the national cancer strategy, said she was one of the lucky ones. She has now been cancer free for 20 years.
She helped develop the Australian Cancer Plan with the hope that it would ensure every Australian had equal access to the same high-quality care.
“… I guess as an Aboriginal woman, you know, I was very privileged in the context that … my work was involved in universities, in medical … and health, and so my connections to the health system were very strong,” Professor Elston said.
“And so, that made a very big difference to me in terms of where I was at in my cancer journey, and how I was treated [compared] to the average person in regional Australia, let alone the other average Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander women.”
According to research from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the gap in cancer mortality rates between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous people is widening.
While outcomes for non-Indigenous Australians are improving, First Nations people are 14 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with cancer, and 45 per cent more likely to die from cancer.
“The biggest issue that we now have is that cancer has become the leading cause of death for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” Professor Elston said.
“It’s taken over the other chronic diseases that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been struggling with.”
(ABC)
