Page 4968 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 26 October 2011
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My wife and I attended their annual dinner on Monday night and it was fantastic to see the number of women and their families out supporting this organisation.
As I have time I will discuss some of those women and the night. I would like particularly to thank Annette Ellis, a former member for Canberra, who is the patron of the organisation. She was MC this year at the dinner, as she was last year. She also contributed a hat to the hat hat hooray competition, and she does a magnificent job as MC. The speaker this year was Alex Sloan. She gave insights into her career as a journalist. It was a great perspective from a strong female here in the ACT. There were a couple of breast care nurses from Calvary at the event, Annie and Jen. It was great to see them come along after a very busy day working on a number of events and also continuing on with their normal job at Calvary, supporting women with breast cancer.
I would like to commend the work done by Kate Darcy, who is the President of Bosom Buddies, and the committee, including Linda Wright, Frances Chaloner, Marisa Gerussi, Sally Saunders, Eleanor Bates, Larissa Sinclair, Gigi Lungu, Kaye Johnstone and Marilyn Brookes.
As we recognise pink ribbon month, I ask us all to consider how we may further the work of these passionate volunteers. What was very sad on the night was that, as we know, across the ACT a number of people lose their lives, and the names of those who had lost their lives were read out. It was a very poignant moment. We had a minute’s silence and it really brought home for me the importance of fighting this insidious disease, doing everything we can to assist in finding a cure, doing everything we can to ensure that there are adequate prevention measures available in the ACT, and doing everything we can to support those that have breast cancer.
To groups like Bosom Buddies and the Cancer Council, to Sue Owen and HeadsUp at Calvary, and all the other people that have contributed to supporting pink ribbon month and supporting women with breast cancer throughout the year, I say: well done. I commend Dr Bourke’s motion to the Assembly. As I said, I foreshadow that we will be supporting the Greens’ amendment. I congratulate all of those people who have been working so hard to fight this insidious disease.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (10.20): I thank Dr Bourke for bringing on this motion today and also for the words from Mr Hanson. I note that the motion is very similar to the content of the motion that was moved 12 months ago; I will try not to repeat what I said last time although it was quite a comprehensive speech that I gave on that occasion. It is important that every year we recognise Pink Ribbon Day and breast cancer and acknowledge the work that goes into that day and the people who have died of breast cancer and also the people who have survived breast cancer.
The last Chief Health Officer report tells us that breast cancer accounts for about 16½ per cent of all cancers diagnosed each year, prostate cancer being second at 15½ per cent. Breast cancer is still recorded as the biggest killer of women. On average, 35 women in the ACT die each year from breast cancer related illness. It accounts for 18½ per cent of all cancer-related deaths amongst women. The rate is reducing with time, as more women receive a diagnosis at an earlier stage. In the ACT it may at some point be overtaken by lung cancer, which requires its own response.
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