10 Year Anniversary
BCNA congratulates B Friends on the 10th Anniversary of the group. To be providing support for 10 years to women diagnosed with breast cancer is a remarkable milestone and one to be proud of. BCNA know that Member Groups are a very real resource to women to empower them in their journey. BCNA acknowledges and commends B Friends Breast Cancer Support Group for providing this often challenging role in the journey of women diagnosed with breast cancer.
 
In Jan's words:
In 1998, a few of us travelled to the Botanical Gardens in Canberra on invitation for a gathering of breast cancer women and were most impressed. From that to this - How!
We went ahead and invited them to visit us and spread the word of just how wonderful this support would be. This all happened one afternoon at the Dr. McKay Community Centre in Moruya and from there it blossomed - Today B Friends is very well-known locally - from here in the Bay all the way down to Narooma and beyond.
Towards the end of that same year (1998), my time as Co-ordinator of the BCSS came to a halt. Martyn, my husband and I went off to Pakistan to work in what we were familiar with - Cancer and Palliative Care. Much of what I had learnt from these dedicated women went with us. They had trained me well. Support for women with breast cancer is so important worldwide and those darlings there were very concerned about this also. Over time, weekly support meetings were held in a small room for those who wished and were able to be there - many of them very young women with their mothers or sisters. Amazing just what is discussed when we know that it is in confidence and that we can allow our emotions to pour forth.
Soft prosthesis (fluffy ducks) from here to there were appreciated but making something a little heavier for afterwards was challenging - birdseed comes to mind - on damp cotton wool in a small dish seeing how long it would take before it sprouted. Concern was perspiration (temperatures soaring to 50 degrees during some of the months) dampening of the prosthesis was going to occur most probably. Yet the various size patterns for the soft prosthesis covers were copied many times over.
After more than 3 years in Pakistan we came home. Not happy to just settle back into "normal" life I now travel to Malaysia on a regular basis and work with the Palliative Care Teams on a voluntary basis. After six years of this traipsing, I now feel that it is my second home. One of my privileges whilst there has been to attend the Breast Cancer Clinic at the University Hospital in Kuala Lumpur and participate in caring for those women who have progressive disease and are referred to Palliative Care.
Whilst there are those who do not survive there are many women who do. Several of these women devote a great deal of their time and energy in supporting others. In Kuala Lumpur the two breast surgeons championing this cause are female and amazing. Last year they held a huge conference for survivors of breast and colon cancer. Most of the attendees were breast cancer survivors, those receiving treatment and health professionals who are very involved in the support and care of these women.
So you here today and the many women who assist others throughout the world are just fantastic, nurturing creatures. It is in the core of your makeup and thank goodness it is. Friendships develop between two that would not have but for your common thread - breast cancer. I would like to take this opportunity to wish B Friends a very happy Tenth Birthday and to thank you all for your community spirit, your concern for others and the efforts you make when you yourself may not feel "crash hot". And to Jenny my thanks indeed for her friendship and the love she has extended to so many over these last twenty years that I know of (approx. 25 I think) and her passionate devotion to such a worthwhile cause".
There were many questions asked of Jan and her work with women with breast cancer in Kuala Lumpur and Pakistan. Jenny Halkett thanked Jan for her commitment, passion and friendship over many years.
Community Liaison, Anna Wellings Booth, on behalf of BCNA congratulated the group and was delighted to learn that the reason for their becoming a formal support group came from a BCNA initiative 10 years ago. Anna presented flowers to Jenny Halkett and Anne Brown as a gesture of their support of BCNA and their enthusiasm in ensuring that newly diagnosed women were informed of the My Journey Kit and also the Hope & Hurdles Pack. There was very warm appreciation by the women for this acknowledgement.
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