Your donation will make a difference to the lives of people living with cancer
As Australia's only public hospital solely dedicated to overcoming cancer, we have the privilege to be closely involved with all our patients, their families and carers. At Peter Mac we get to see the real difference cancer research has on the lives of people living with cancer.
How your support helps people impacted by cancer
Meet Anna
Anna was diagnosed with an aggressive and rare form of cancer at 29 years old.
Before her diagnosis, Anna says, she and her partner Sian were happily “just doing life”. But their world was shattered by three simple words: ‘you have cancer’.
At the age of 29, Anna was fit and healthy, going for regular 10k runs with Sian. She dabbled in pottery, was renovating her apartment, and was joyfully planning a European holiday.
Her life was interrupted when she began experiencing a pain in her jaw that simply wouldn’t go away.
It turned out to be an aggressive form of cancer called Ewing sarcoma. And a subtype so rare only 90 people have ever been diagnosed with it in that part of the body.
Your support is urgently needed to accelerate cancer research and help save the lives of people like Anna.
Meet Lily
"Imagine having to sign a form, saying your child may basically die on the operating table of a stroke or hundreds and hundreds of different things that could have happened.
- Alicia, Lily's Mum
Lily was only 5 years old when she was diagnosed with brain cancer - a rare and aggressive type with a survival rate that hasn’t improved in decades.
For children, the side effects of conventional treatments can include learning and physical disabilities, heart trouble, infertility and a host of other debilitating conditions. This can have a huge impact on not only the child’s life, but also their entire family.
We need safer, kinder and more effective treatments for children with cancer—and we need them now.
That’s why your support is so critical.
Please help Peter Mac researchers discover the next breakthrough in cancer research
Our researchers rely on generous donations just like yours, to continue their search for more cancer cures and better treatments.
Professor Alexander Heriot
I’m seeing people live longer, healthier, happier lives. We’re treating cases that we probably couldn’t have treated before. And so much of that has been driven by ongoing research that people like you have made possible."
As Peter Mac's Clinical Director of Cancer Surgery, Professor Alexander Heriot and his team are taking the lead in exciting research around progressing and refining personalised treatments to treat every individual's cancer.
By doing this, they can discover which treatments will work best for an individual patient before they begin their treatment plan. Your support will help detailed and important research like this continue.
Dr Kristin Brown
"We still have so much to learn about cancers. We are making progress but without research we can't make the advances we need to come up with new therapies or new ways to diagnose cancer."
Dr Kristin Brown’s research is investigating how to stop cancer cells rewiring their own metabolism in response to chemotherapy, to prevent them from becoming treatment-resistant.
As we continue to advance our understanding of cancer, Peter Mac researchers are determined to make new breakthroughs, breakthroughs that will save lives.
Professor Constantine Tam
"I think at Peter Mac the core culture is that we're not happy with the current state of cancer. And so we're always trying to advance, to develop new treatments, to improve on what we already have."
Professor Constantine (Con) Tam is a leading expert in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Con’s work has led to therapies for blood cancers that are more effective than traditional chemotherapy, with fewer side-effects.
His work provides the exciting potential to cure what were once incurable cancers.
"I want to be able to make a difference - advance treatment for patients with all cancers."
"The only way we can do better is with research." Dr Alesha Thai’s work is focused on head and neck cancers – but the discoveries and breakthroughs she makes in this field have the potential to translate into all cancer types. Supporters like you are helping Dr Thai investigate a way to improve the likelihood of patients getting the most effective treatment for their cancer type, by testing treatments on their tumour in the lab.
Read more about Dr Thai's research