Our Daffodil Day appeal is raising much needed funds throughout August for Cancer Council WA's life-saving cancer research.
It's this vital research which will help the more than 13,000 West Australians diagnosed with cancer each year, like Ron McNally. Ron is a husband, a father, and a grandfather. Ron is also a fighter.
"I'm a fairly active person, a young 71 year old. After a prostate cancer diagnosis in 2018, I started having trouble breathing in May 2022, and went to my GP, who gave me a referral to get an x-ray", Ron shares.
Within 40 minutes of getting his x-ray, Ron had a call to come to the hospital. His right lung was full of fluid.
The analysis of the fluid showed it was cancer, and the most likely culprit was mesothelioma. "My worst nightmare had come true", Ron says.
Your generosity this Daffodil Day will help researchers such as Faith Chang continue their work unlocking new treatments for cancer patients like Ron.
Faith's research looks at combining radiation with immunotherapy, allowing more blood flow and oxygen, but most importantly, more tumour killing immune cells into the tumour.
"Treatment options are severely limited – despite new immunotherapies being approved in the last few years, mesothelioma still has one of the lowest five-year survival rates of all cancers – it is almost always fatal," Faith says.
Ron's life expectancy on the first visit to his oncologist was two years.
"I'm now halfway through. I'm basically living life from PET scan to PET scan, because it's my reference on how the mesothelioma is tracking," Ron shares.
Every day is rewarding in some way, where I've done something productive, useful, helpful or enjoyable. I don't get bogged down in the small stuff. There's nothing I can do about my situation now. I've got to accept life as it is.
Ron's story is a reminder that cancer can strike anyone at any time.
