Planning is underway for Walking Stars 2022, and we can't wait to return to Kings Domain on Saturday 3 December for our biggest event yet!
In the meantime, we want to share how the money you helped raise last year is delivering lifesaving cancer research, treatment and support.
How your funds are helping
Thanks to your support, 15 Victorian research teams have embarked on ground-breaking new projects.
As a result of one of these projects, cancer patients will be able to receive radiotherapy in a state-of-the-art radiotherapy chair, which can better target cancer cells and provide greater comfort.
Patients usually receive radiotherapy lying down on a flat, hard, carbon-fibre treatment couch. If a patient can sit in an upright position, it is much more comfortable and may reduce collateral radiation dose to radiation-sensitive organs. The chair also has potential to be a mobile treatment facility and improve access to radiation treatment in remote and regional areas.
Pictured: State-of-the-art chair to be a game-changer in radiation treatment.
The money you raised is also supporting exciting research into manipulating immune cells to improve cancer treatments; the early detection and monitoring of liver cancer; understanding muscle wasting and weakness in cancer patients to increase survival; and building on the remarkable advances already made in treating leukaemia and lymphoma with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells.
“These projects have the potential to be not only game-changing, but lifesaving in their impact on people with cancer,”– Todd Harper, CEO Cancer Council Victoria.
Thank you for supporting this vital work. You are providing a much brighter future for all Victorians affected by cancer.
COVID-19 is continuing to be a cause of concern for people living with cancer. During the first three weeks of 2022, more than 17 per cent of calls to our 13 11 20 cancer information and support line were COVID-19 related.
Thanks to generous supporters like you, our cancer nurses have remained a phone call away to provide support, information and reassurance.
Kathrine, a mother of two, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2018. When she tested positive while immune compromised and in remission in January 2022, she called Cancer Council’s 13 11 20 information and support line.
“The nurses are awesome,” she said. “They’re easy to talk to and they help with almost any question you have. The fact that they rang again with a follow up call was very much appreciated.”
It is because of the funds raised by our amazing Walking Stars, our cancer nurses have been able to continue offering information and support to Victorians living with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Together, there’s no limit to what we can achieve!
Walking Stars will be back on 3 December 2022, and we can’t wait to see what we can achieve together this year.
Our first release of super early bird tickets will go live in August. Save the date today so you don't miss out!
