Macksville got its pizzazz on again today as the Nambucca Valley Cancer Support Group (NVCSP) hosted their annual fashion parade fundraiser.
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The stars of the show - Cynthia, Carol, Eliza, Marlene, Sue, Tracey, Aida and Pauline - all strutted their stuff around the room in the latest the Valley Emporium has to offer.
Macksville's McGrath Breast Care Nurse Carolyn Cross addressed the 100-strong audience, and Coffs Harbour's Breast Care Nurse Lee Millard followed.
Watch a video of today's glamour:
Lee has been working steadily in the field for the past twenty years and gave an illuminating rundown of the changes that have occurred in that time.
In 1998 a national summit was held and a convention centre full of breast cancer survivors came together to campaign for change.
"Those people were looking for a better deal," Lee said.
Breast Cancer Network Australia was one of the positives to come out of that summit - an organisation which links over 10,000 survivors nation-wide.
The Breast Care Nurse program - with dedicated professionals with specialised skills and experience was another achievement.
"When I came on board there was only one nurse in Dubbo, and one nurse in Sydney," Lee said.
Soon after there were services in Port Macquarie, Taree and the Tweed.
Then in 2005 the McGrath Foundation started its own specialist nurse program targeting regional areas in which sufferers would have to otherwise travel hundreds of kilometres to access that sort of care.
Multi-disciplinary teams combining surgeons, pathologists, radiologists and nurses have been another major development.
"We decided we would come together as a group and not work in silos - bounce ideas, and treatment plans off each other," Lee said.
"This empowers women and men with breast cancer diagnoses to be part of that decision-making process."
The new whole-of-health industry framework has meant a perspective change to one of individualised care.
Lee said that twenty years ago only one type of drug and one type of chemotherapy existed. Now choice abounds and treatment plans can be more tailor-made to suit individuals.
She said one drug - Herceptin - was usually only prescribed in rare cases of recurrent cancer.
There was a groundswell that pushed for change and it eventually came to be prescribed for certain patients as a preventative measure.
"That drug was $1800 a pop and we had women remortgaging their homes because they heard about it and wanted it," Lee said.
"And there was one person who was the head of Breast Cancer Network Australia that walked up to the then Prime Minister John Howard and stuck a note in his pocket which said 'Women want Herceptin on the PBS'. And what happened? We got it on the PBS.
"So now everybody who is eligible for that drug can have it. We're now one step further where women can have it as an injection rather than as an infusion.
Noone has more determination than a woman who wants change.
She said the advancements in breast cancer treatment made possible by people at grassroots level - like those in the NVCSP - were used as templates for treatment of other types of cancer.
And the wins have contributed to far superior survival rates and improved screening programs. New South Wales now leads the world in breast cancer survival rates.
There's a greater focus on preventative health owing to the results of research made possible by fundraisers like the ones the NVCSP host each year.
And there have been several scientific advancements over the past two decades: genome testing; knowledge of multiple genes, not just BRCA 1 and 2; 3D imaging in mammograms; and breast MRI.
"Breast MRI was only available for a very small select group of people. But from November 1, the Government will introduce them to Medicare," Lee said.
We wouldn't have achieved these things without people like you in this room today and the groundswell you've generated.
"What motivates me every day is walking the journey with people like you."
It was fascinating to hear how far we've come in understanding and treating breast cancer, and so succinctly put.
It's even more fascinating to contemplate what's to come in the next two decades.