Volunteer Voice December

Transport to Treatment launched in Brisbane

Last month we officially launched our Transport to Treatment service in Brisbane.

This important new service will transport Brisbane cancer patients from their homes, to and from treatment, to help ease the burden of the disease.

The service comes at no cost to cancer patients and is operated by volunteer drivers who donate their time, support and understanding to provide a vital service.

The costs and stress of organising transport to attend treatment appointments can be an additional burden for many Queenslanders affected by cancer and we hope this service will make a difference to those with limited transport options.

Thank you to all the volunteers and supporters who helped launch this service in Brisbane! Your hard work and generosity means that more Brisbane cancer patients are now able to easily access the treatment they need.

To find out more about the service, please call 13 11 20 or visit click here..

Volunteer survey results and our next steps

Thank you to everyone who participated in our volunteer survey earlier this year!

This survey provided us with a valuable insight into how you feel about volunteering for CCQ, and what we can do to improve your experience.

Overall, the results were incredibly positive with the majority of you indicating that you enjoy volunteering and value your relationship with CCQ and our staff.

Highlights

• Over 25 per cent of volunteers who responded to our paper survey have been CCQ volunteers for more than 21 years.
• Over 85 per cent of respondents said they felt supported by CCQ and would recommend volunteering with us to others.
• Most volunteers said they’d prefer to receive training either face-to-face or at a group session/branch meeting.
• The top five things people enjoy about volunteering with CCQ are meeting new people, helping others in need, working towards finding a cure, bringing awareness to the community and hearing people’s stories.

You also offered some fantastic suggestions for how you think we could improve the volunteering experience, particularly in relation to communication, training, and Volunteer Voice. We’ve used your suggestions to prepare our next steps to ensure we improve in these areas in the coming months.

Next steps

Communication

• Volunteer Managers will soon take part in a training session all about this topic with their training tailored to address the key points of feedback raised in the survey.

Volunteer Voice

• We’re working to incorporate your preferences from the survey into upcoming issues of Volunteer Voice to make sure you’re receiving the CCQ news you’re most interested in.
• Many of you said you wanted more regional stories in Volunteer Voice, so we’re encouraging all staff and volunteers to send these amazing stories in, so they can be shared.

Training

• One of our key objectives this final quarter and into early 2018 is to work with each program area to offer role-based training to volunteers next year.

Thank You Celebrations

We hope you enjoyed the Thank You Celebrations as much as we enjoyed catching up with you there and celebrating your achievements.

Here are a few photos that were taken at various events.

Relaying for a cancer free future

During September and October, 18 Relay for Life events were held across the state.

From the Cassowary Coast in the far north, down to the Northern Gold Coast and out west to Roma, hundreds of teams kept a baton moving in a relay-style walk or run for 18 hours to give hope to the one in two Queenslanders diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.

The events were a huge success with more than 20,000 Queenslanders joining in and relaying for the cause.

Some of the highlights of our September-October relays included:

• Townsville and Gold Coast Relay participants took the track on the weekend of 16-17 September, collectively raising over $250,000.
• Hughenden hosted this year’s Red Dirt Relay For Life, with the small town of 2000 people raising over $24,000 – well and truly surpassing their goal of $15,000!
• In Hervey Bay, more than 500 participants in 54 teams raised an impressive $78,000.
• Despite adverse weather resulting in a last-minute location change for the South Burnett/Kingaroy event in early October, 630 people attended the event and raised over $125,000.

Planning is now underway for next year’s Relay For Life events across Queensland, with a number of events already open for registrations.

To find out more about next year’s events and how you can get involved, please visit relayforlife.org.au.

National Skin Cancer Action Week

Each November, Cancer Council and the Australasian College of Dermatologists join together to present National Skin Cancer Action Week.

Held from November 19-25 this year, this week is a time when we remind Australians of the importance of sun protection and early skin cancer detection.

More than 2000 Australians die from skin cancer each year and Cancer Council estimates that Australia spends over $1 billion treating skin cancer annually, with costs having increased substantially in recent years.

Yet, most skin cancers can be prevented by using good sun protection.

As we move into the sweltering summer months, it is important to remember to slip on sun-protective clothing, slop on SPF30 (or higher) broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreen, slap on a broad-brimmed hat, seek shade, and slide on sunglasses.

A combination of these measures, along with getting to know your skin and regularly checking for any changes, are the key to reducing your skin cancer risk.

Did you know?

• If you have fair skin, blue or green eyes, fair or red hair or lots of moles or freckles you are at a high risk of developing skin cancer.
• Cumulative UV exposure also contributes to your risk of developing skin cancer. So, if you grew up in Australia, work outdoors or spend lots of time in the sun you should take care to protect your skin.
• Melanoma accounts for 10 per cent of all cancers.
• Many skin cancers are detected by people themselves or by a family member, so do not hesitate to see a doctor if you notice something that doesn’t seem right on your skin .

Predictors of mortality in thin melanomas

Principle Researcher:

Associate Professor Kiarash Khosrotehrani

Co-Chief Investigator:

Professor David Whiteman

Professor Adele Green

Professor Peter Baade

Professor Mark Smithers

Professor Peter Soyer

Project Location:

UQ Diamantina Institute

Translational Research Institute

Project Outline:

Melanoma can be a fatal disease depending on the thickness of the tumour at the time of diagnosis. Even among patients with thin melanomas, that represent the largest numbers, the disease can result in mortality. As a result, currently a significant proportion of patients who die from melanoma had a thin tumour. Our project proposes to identify factors that can predict which patients will succumb to their disease in this largest category of melanoma patients.

This project is needed to allow us to identify a group of patients at risk of death, that by current standard are not being separated from long term survivors of melanoma. Our objective is to identify demographic, genetic or biological factors in the primary tumour obtained upon the initial diagnosis biopsy that can predict bad outcome in these patients. Identifying patients at risk of melanoma death allows us to establish secondary prevention and surveillance strategies to identify and treat disease relapse more quickly. In the long term, high risk patients would be key candidates to undergo trials of new adjuvant therapies to prevent the metastasis of the disease.

Project Goals:

• Assemble tumour material for testing.
• Identify key genetic and biological predictors of survival.
• To determine the identification and the validation of a set of factors that predict melanoma death in those with thin melanomas.