goes out to save lives Team work: Diana Farmer, left, and Lois Dennington are getting the cancer screening message out. Picture: Jarryd Bravo
The FOBT kits are sent is sent to eligible Australians aged over 50, who are the biggest risk group. Health authorities provide free, twoyearly screening programs to eligible residents to test for bowel cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer. Anyone not covered by the national program can purchase a FOBT from Cancer Council Victoria online at cancervic.org.au/boweltest or call the helpline on 13 11 20. FOBTs are also available through some GPs, pharmacies and health care funds.
Early detection the key TWO of the women involved in an innovative cancer awareness campaign bring experience in education, health and illness to their roles as “community champions”. At 82, Mornington accountant and Edithvale resident, Lois Dennington, has more energy than many people half her age. The Australian Masters swimming champion still works every day, swims regularly and works out at the gym twice a week. But 20 years ago the future looked very different for Lois, who in her early 60s was diagnosed with bowel cancer and had to endure invasive surgery followed by six months of chemotherapy. One of the “lucky” ones to rebound with a clean bill of health, the energetic octogenarian has used the time since to promote good, healthy living through Frankston Council’s ‘Positive Ageing’ programs, and now as one of the Cancer Council’s 12 community champions. Ms Dennington takes her role to raise awareness of regular cancer screening very seriously and has been subtly, and sometimes not-so-subtly, bringing up the subject with friends, family and colleagues. “It is a difficult subject – nobody
wants to talk about poo, but I try to take the fear and embarrassment out of it,” she said. “Back when I was diagnosed there wasn’t the easy option of a bowel screening kit you could do yourself, so it’s so much easier now and reliable. “I feel that if you are in a position to help people, you do something about it.” For Langwarrin resident, retired community nurse and fellow community champion, Diana Farmer, the message is clear. “It’s an important conversation and I’m happy to talk to anyone about it – some people think it’s a bit yucky, but it’s not - it’s necessary,” she said. During her time as a breast cancer support nurse and palliative care nurse, Ms Farmer has seen the terrible emotional and social costs of the disease. “After working as a nurse, it’s really not difficult for me to talk about these things with people and if we, as people in the community, can change people’s approach to prevention and screening, that’s great,” she said. “This country is very fortunate to have such excellent programs that raise awareness and give people a chance to do something about their health.”
Ambos response slightly slips EMERGENCY ambulance response times have risen by the smallest of margins across Frankston and best practice targets for emergency callouts are still being missed. Data released by Ambulance Victoria shows 83.9 per cent of code one calls in 2015-16 across Frankston were responded to within 15 minutes. The average response time in 201516 to 9695 incidents was 11 minutes, 25 seconds. This was a slight increase on an average response time of 11 minutes, 24 seconds to 9345 incidents in 2014-15. The Ambulance Victoria target for under 15 minutes response times for areas with a population greater than 7500 is 90 per cent. The Frankston area has more than 135,000 residents. Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy in April said the Labor state government included $144 million “to fix the ambulance system after four years of crisis” in its first budget and highlighted statewide response time improvements. “With ambulance response times now the best they have been in five
years, this shows what can be achieved by working together with our paramedics – instead of declaring war on them like the Liberals did,” Ms Hennessy subsequently said in a statement this month. Liberal opposition health spokeswoman Mary Wooldridge said ambulance services are not improving in line with increased funding. “Before the last election, Daniel Andrews claimed ambulance response times were in crisis and said he would fix it,” Ms Wooldridge said. “After nearly two years as Premier, he is nowhere near his target, with response times similar to what they were under the previous government when Daniel Andrews claimed it was a crisis.” In 2014, when the previous Coalition state government was in power, Ambulance Victoria refused to release response times categorised by local government area and instead only provided statewide figures. Ambulance Victoria’s board was axed and replaced after Labor’s state election win in November 2014. Neil Walker
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Frankston Times 21 November 2016
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