My Daughter’s Diagnosis Taught Me the Power of Words

February 20, 2013 in Children, Health, Mental Health, Parenting, Self

In 2005, at the age of three, my daughter was diagnosed with autism. The day I received the doctor’s report is forever burned in my memory. That is the day I left a safe and secure world for a new and unknown world of parenting a child with a disability. When the doctor said, ‘Your daughter has autism’, my heart froze. In that moment I felt the weight of the word and all that it implied, not only for my daughter’s future, but for mine. Later that day as I read through the report other words leapt from the page: [...]

The Ignored Cancers

June 25, 2012 in Current Affairs, Health, News

When I opened The Sun Herald to have my usual Sunday read, I found an article called “Denial worsens danger of cancer“. It said, in part: Cancer survival rates have increased across NSW, a new report shows, but an attitude of denial about the symptoms is still causing many people to die unnecessarily. The Cancer Institute NSW report, Cancer Survival in NSW 2002-06, to be released today, has found that patients diagnosed with cancer now have a 64.4 per cent chance of beating the disease over five years. Just 30 years ago, cancer patients had less than a 50-50 chance of survival after [...]