Monday, 22 July 2024
Government House, Sydney
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales

As is our tradition here at Government House, may I greet you in the language of the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of the lands on which Government House stands. 

Bujari gamarruwa, Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

Also in their language, I greet you as eora bujeri – ‘good people’, as you are, to celebrate the invaluable support you have given to the NELUNE Foundation in reaching its fundraising goal of over $3.2 million to make the Nelune Men’s Health Centre a reality.

This celebration is another milestone in what is now almost a quarter-of-a-century campaign by the Foundation and its founders Nelune Rajapakse and Anna Guillan in bringing comprehensive expert care to cancer sufferers. This has been no mean feat, with around $35 million being raised over that time, all whilst Nelune and Anna have maintained their professional roles and Nelune has managed her own serious cancer issues, and, together with your unfailing support, navigating the challenges thrown up by COVID. 

As I suspect everyone in this room knows, it was Nelune’s own experience of the lack of coordination in cancer care services that instigated this determination to bring about something better for cancer patients.

We know that Australian health care, and cancer research in particular, is world class. However, for the cancer patient and family, there are challenges beyond the diagnosis and treatment: accessibility, mobility, financial strain, and psychological impact.

That is why the principle underlying the work of the Foundation is all about dignity: to ensure that everyone, “regardless of their social or financial circumstance”^[1], has access to the very best integrated cancer treatment and support should they need it.

Those involved in Breast Cancer realised very early that health is a vital integer of the wellbeing not only of the individual, but also of the community. That is why the Foundation leans into you, this generous community who support its work.

With all the jokes about man flu aside, men’s health, and in particular prostate cancer, has its own story and challenges.

You may be aware that prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Australia^[2]; 1-in-6 Australian males are estimated to be diagnosed with it by the age of 85^[3]. Early detection is key, with a 5-year survival rate of around 95%^[4].

That is the diagnosis and treatment side. 

In prostate cancer the possible psychosocial and physiological complications include depression and anxiety, and a devastating 70% higher risk of suicide in the first 12 months following diagnosis.^[5] Like breast cancer patients, prostate cancer patients often question their continued sense of self, asking not only “why me?” but also, “will treatment change who I fundamentally am?”

Then, there is the financial challenge: within the St. Vincent’s Health Network Sydney catchment, services specifically addressing these treatment-related issues often sit exclusively within the private healthcare system,^[6] so that only those with the means and motivation to pay for services have access to the support they require. This not only fragments care, but also creates disparity in patient groups.

St Vincent’s Nelune Men’s Health Centre –which will open later this year^[7] as a direct result of your generosity – will have the facilities and the expertise needed to counter both this fragmentation of care, as well as inequitable access to it. By offering public hospital patients a centralised ‘one-stop shop’ in the St Vincent Healthcare Campus, it will coordinate leading-edge prostate cancer care with wrap-around support for the side-effects and the impact of treatment.

As Patrons, Dennis and I thank you for your generosity in bringing this project to fruition, in particular, and more generally for your wider support for the Foundation.

[1] ‘About Us’, Nelune Foundation website, available here

[2] ‘Facts and Figures: Cancer Statistics in Australia’, Cancer Council of Australia website, available here

[3] ‘Prostate Cancer in Australia Statistics’, Australian Government Cancer Australia website, available here.

[4] “In 2019, over 95% of prostate cancers diagnosed were adenocarcinomas. The 5-year survival rate for this type of prostate cancer in 2015–2019 was 98% and strongly influenced the overall prostate cancer 5-year survival rates of 96% for the period. While prostate cancer survival rates are high, exceptions exist such as neuroendocrine neoplasms. Between 2015 and 2019, around 0.2% of prostate cancers diagnosed were neuroendocrine neoplasms. The 5-year survival rates for these prostate cancers in 2015–2019 was 12%”: ‘Overview of Cancer in Australia, 2023’, Australian Government Australian Institute of Health and Welfare website, available here

[5] Information provided by NELUNE Foundation.

[6] supportstvincents.com.au/about-us/our-stories/st-vincents-launches-mens-health-project; NELUNE Foundation provided information.

[7] Phone conversation with Nelune Rajapakse