Volunteer Voice June

Daffodil Day

Daffodil Day (August 25) is one of the most iconic fundraising events in Queensland – with thousands coming together to turn the state yellow and grow hope for a cancer free future.

This year volunteers are needed to help sell daffodils and merchandise at sites across Queensland.

Whether you can volunteer for the whole day or just a few hours, every bit helps continue the success of this iconic event.

New Cairns volunteer transport service

This month we are proud to have launched a new patient transport service in Cairns!

The service provides transport for cancer patients between their home and treatment.

This vital service will benefit local cancer patients by reducing cost and stress for people needing to travel for treatment in areas where there are limited transport options available.

Thank you to our new volunteer drivers who are staffing the service! We are excited to watch this service grow and see the difference your support makes in the local community.

If you, a friend or relative wish to use the service, please speak with your health professional and ask them to make a referral by calling our Support and Information line on 13 11 20.

Men’s Health Week

Men’s Health Week, June 12 -18, presents an opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of men across Australia by highlighting the factors that keep us healthy in body and mind.

This year’s theme was ‘Healthy Body, Healthy Mind: Keeping the Balance’ and explored the different ways men and boys are managing to keep healthy, physically and emotionally, in a busy world.

One in five Queensland men will be diagnosed with a men’s cancer by age 85, with prostate cancer the most commonly diagnosed. Each year more than 4085 Queensland men are diagnosed with a men’s cancer and around 600 die from the disease.

Despite statistics like these, men are less frequent visitors to general practitioners.

The aim of Men’s Health Week is to heighten awareness of preventable health problems and encourage early detection and treatment of disease among men. We encourage you to use this opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations with other men, or the men in your life, about physical and emotional health. By encouraging men to take care of themselves, we hope to improve their future health outcomes.

Friends of CCQ

We are excited to announce that the name for our alumni club is Friends of CCQ.

Thank you to everyone who sent in suggestions for a name.

Friends of CCQ will allow those who are no longer volunteering to stay in contact and receive up to date information.

Introducing our research projects

Each month we will share with you some of the research projects that we are currently undertaking or funding. Your contribution, through volunteering or fundraising, allows this vital research to continue.

Local targeting of immunomodulatory molecules on CD8 T-cells in
non-melanoma skin cancer

Principle Researcher – Dr Graham Leggatt PhD

Co-Chief Investigator Professor – Ian Frazer

Project Location– UQ Diamantina Institute Translational Research Institute

Project Outline

Non-melanoma skin cancers are the most commonly diagnosed cancers in Australia, and a large financial burden on the national healthcare system. Commonly, these cancers are removed by surgical excision but this can lead to unwanted scarring.

Non-melanoma skin cancers also have the ability to evade our natural immune response and consequently, effective vaccines and immunotherapies are not yet available for these cancers. The complexity of the immune response means that no single treatment may work effectively to improve patient outcomes, meaning that we need to look at combination therapies and getting the combinations right. Our study will look at local delivery of drugs (antibodies) to restore the anti-tumour immune response, thus providing an additional treatment option for patients.

Surgery is the most common treatment for non-melanoma skin cancers but can lead to unwanted disfiguration particularly in the head and neck region. Alternative treatments are only partially successful, and we wish to design a more robust treatment option which utilises a patient’s own immune system to attack the tumour from the inside.

Project Goals

• Understand the roll of the killer T-Cells in silencing non-melanoma skin cancer.
• To develop antibodies that restore the anti- tumour immune response.
• To develop testing of immunotherapeutic treatments for non-melanoma skin cancer in human clinical trials.

Kristen’s journey

Kristen’s journey began when she was 21 years old and enjoying a working holiday in London with her big sister, Elsa.

Over the period of a few weeks, she’d been suffering from some pretty severe cramping which led her straight to a GP and then to the emergency department for some further testing.