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Brain cancer a 1200-a-year killer Eve Jeffery When you have worked a full career, brought up a family and retired, you sort of expect and hope for a long slow decline into the next phase of existence. Ocean Shores woman Jennifer Hughes was on just such a path when on 1 October last year she went out to lunch with friends – after all, that’s what you do when you are retired. Jen had a bad headache. It had been going on for a while and she was losing function on the lefthand side of her body – stumbling, falling sideways, and veering left while walking. Her friends were so
concerned about her strange behaviour that they took her straight to the Byron hospital. She told them: I am 58 years old and have lived in the Byron Shire for the last 32 years. Most of my time in the local area has been working in education, teaching children with special needs. I live with my husband and have two sons – 28 and 25 years old – and I am now retired. The hospital did a variety of tests including a brain scan where they found an unexplained mass, and transferred her to the Gold Coast hospital. Once there they did an MRI and on Friday 5 October Jennifer had surgery to remove 95 per cent of an aggressive
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• Around 1,700 people are diagnosed with brain cancer in Australia annually and approximately 1,200 die from the disease every year. • Brain cancer kills more children in Australia than any other disease and more people under 40 than any other cancer. • Relative five-year survival for brain cancer has hardly changed for 30 years, increasing by only 1 percent between the periods of 1984–1988 and 2009–2013. • Only two in ten people diagnosed with brain cancer will survive for at least five years.
Living with cancer: Jennifer Hughes. brain tumour. Jen was diagnosed as having a GBM grade 4 tumour; this is not good news as it cannot be cured and survival rates are low. Despite significant increases in survival rates for Australians diagnosed with other types of cancer, such as breast and prostate cancer, brain cancer is not showing the same success. Brain cancer is challenging to treat as it’s hard for drugs to get to the tumour. The brain’s ‘blood brain barrier’
limits the passage of drugs from the bloodstream into the brain. Brain cancer receives the least amount of government funding of all cancers – less than five per cent of federal government funding. So along with her treatment of surgery and chemo, Jen plans to highlight the cause and raise funds for much-needed research. Jen and her family, work colleagues, and friends from near and far, past and
present, are entering the Sun Run Cole Classic 2019 in Sydney, walking from Dee Why to Manly (about seven kilometres). Jen and her support crew have been fundraising in the local area and currently sit at the top of the Sun Run leaderboard, having raised $12,628.95 toward her goal of $20,000. Jen feels extremely lucky to have a big support base of family and friends who are keen to help. She says we live in a very generous and supportive community. Many people in the country are already working hard to achieve this, such as Charlie Teo, Mark Hughes, and Carrie Bickmore. Jen says if she can help in any little way that would be a great thing. ‘Since the diagnosis my outlook on life has changed,’ says Jennifer. ‘I am more appreciative of the world
around us and better able to live life in the moment. I am also more confident as I don’t have time to waste. I love to take photos and have been taking photos in the local area during my walks and sharing them on Facebook. I recently put out a calendar of some of my photos, which has been a great fundraiser. It’s another way of stopping, noticing, and sharing the wonders of the world around us.’ Jen says it has been heartwarming and humbling to have local businesses as well as friends and family get behind her efforts so enthusiastically. ‘I sincerely hope we get a breakthrough soon. ‘I know a lot of people are working very hard to achieve this goal and we appreciate their efforts immensely! ‘Thank you, and good luck to you all!’
Road test: Toyota’s (top-of-range) Corolla Hybrid ZR: $31,920 Jim Beatson Is this the best Toyota Corolla model ever of the 45 million sold around the world since it first arrived in 1967? Answer: Yes. Our road-test vehicle, the top-of-the-range Corolla model the ZR Hybrid, is a quick car and looks like one. The entry-level Corolla Ascent Sport Hybrid is $25,870. Since its debut, the Corolla has been the biggestselling passenger small car on the market. But in the last few years, its rivals from Mazda and Hyundai have upstaged this well-designed, reliable, albeit not-tooexciting, small car. With this complete
redesign, all has changed. Toyota dealers are feeling pretty smug. Our own Corolla Hybrid is cause for extra smugness. Alongside its 1.8L four-cylinder petrol engine, there is an allelectric hybrid power unit. This generates extra electric storage power every time you put on the brakes or go down a hill (during which the petrol motor actually turns off ). The transition from motor power to pure electric is so seamless that this driver and his sensitive co-pilot never noticed. Why buy a hybrid? Economy. At each level in the Corolla range, there is a hybrid version costing only $1,500 more than the
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petrol-only version. Most hybrid owners say they save about $2,000 a year in reduced fuel consumption. That’s $20,000 over a decade. Toyota pioneered hybrids, starting with their Prius model back in 1997. From the start, they were very reliable. The new Corolla is lower, wider, and longer than before, with a sleek front end and a lower bonnet than its predecessor. Apart from looks, this adds to its fuel efficiency. On the trip to and around Brisbane and back, the car averaged 4.1 litres per hundred kilometres. A round trip from Byron to Ballina in the Corolla hybrid used 3.6L/100km – or just shy of 80 mpg in the old money. Australia’s most recent best-selling vehicle is the thirsty Toyota Hilux, using 11.1L/100km. The Corolla’s complete overhaul of driver aids is impressive. Seven airbags; a front radar system automatically slowing the car to a stop or increasing the gap between you and the car in front. The fabulous heads-up display subtly projects onto the windscreen, showing
actual speed and local speed restrictions, fully adaptive cruise-control settings, with flashing road-lane images plus beeps if you move too close to your lane’s edge or someone comes too close to you. The centre dashboard screen display is big and easily read. It includes GPS, reversing camera, automatic Bluetooth connection to your mobile, cordless charging, plus high-quality multispeaker DAB radio audio system. Older drivers who didn’t transition easily to the computer age might find the many steering wheel and dashboard controls difficult at first. Its accurate, smooth steering and lovely handling are generating rave reviews in most car magazines. This top-of-the-range ZR test car came with body-hugging seats, and 18-inch alloys with low-profile grippy tyres. Criticism of the Corolla is limited to its boot size being smaller than rival vehicles’. I found the adaptive cruise control system slow to set on the test car.
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