Fiona was airlifted from her home in Mount Gambier to receive treatment for incurable uterine cancer and told she would need to stay in Adelaide, far from home and family, for seven weeks straight. During this time and every 21 days since, her and her husband Alex have stayed with us in our Lodge accommodation.
Fiona said she never expected to be diagnosed with stage 4 cancer after a visit to her GP.
I thought it was just fibroids or something like that. The next thing I knew, I was having tests and a CAT scan, and they said I had uterine cancer. I don’t think it really hit me how serious it was. They said they wouldn’t even be able to operate. I didn’t understand how any of this was possible.
She was told she would need to go to Adelaide the next week for treatment. Unfortunately Fiona’s condition deteriorated quickly, and the next day, she was transferred by air ambulance to Adelaide.
For the next seven weeks Fiona and Alex stayed at Flinders Lodge, Cancer Council SA’s former accommodation for regional South Australians, to start chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
“I found it confronting to start with. I was scared. I didn’t know how I would cope, surrounded by people with cancer. But I soon discovered it was a wonderful thing. You make friendships and there is so much support,” Fiona says.
“I felt so sick… I was really unwell, and I had headaches and ‘chemo brain’ after treatment. So even though the room at Flinders Lodge was pretty basic, it was clean, the people were kind and it was such a relief. I didn’t have to worry about anything. To have cooked meals, and know there was support around me, made a big difference.”
After her first two treatment sessions in Adelaide, Fiona had a scan and pre-consult for surgery. The chemo and immunotherapy had worked amazingly well and she was able to have a normal cancer hysterectomy.
She had a break from treatment for a while and hoped for the best. But that was not the end of Fiona’s cancer experience.
“Three months later, tests showed my cancer was back, and I had radiation therapy. Then my 12-weekly review scan showed an enlarged lymph node with cancer cells, which meant I was back on chemo and immunotherapy again.”
Ever since that day, Fiona has travelled to Adelaide every 21 days for three days of treatment, staying at Cancer Council SA’s new Lodge on Greenhill Road.
It means so much to country people like me. We know we can come and get a beautiful room, a hot meal, transport to treatment – and you don’t have to go looking for a laundromat. And I am here every 21 days, like clockwork.
Fiona is such a caring and giving person, who has spent so much time with us since her diagnosis. Often, she sits in the comfortable lounge room or foyer to just watch the world go by. Now she loves connecting with others. She sometimes even bakes some scones to share with staff and other guests.
“I’m more than happy to give a hand, to sit, talk and listen. It made me feel good, because that’s what country people do, that’s how I was raised. I like to show people that I love and care for them, and one of the ways I can do that is make some scones.”
If we’d had to pay for accommodation elsewhere, I would have to come up by myself [without my husband]. We couldn’t have afforded it. I actually don’t know how I would have done it.
In the past year alone, we provided over 32,400 nights of accommodation at our Greenhill Lodge for regional people travelling to Adelaide for life-saving cancer treatment, thanks to generous support from the South Australian community.
Learn more about our support for regional South Australians impacted by cancer.
