Hats to Help. Fundraiser for the Brain Tumour Alliance

My wife recently passed away as a result of a tumour (GBM – G4) which was misdiagnosed as well. There were many contributing factors to the misdiagnosis, and in hindsight they were obvious. I think with Brain tumours becoming more common, the practises of GP’s will change and early diagnosis should improve.

What we need to do it increase awareness to this debilitating disease so that appropriate research can be funded. Not to take away from the significance of other cancers, but Brain tumours, by nature of where they are, can have significant impacts on the individual either from the tumour itself or the treatments available.

The majority of GPs are useless in diagnosing these things. The first person to ‘know’ that I had a tumor in my head was an Optometrist and because she was not a ‘doctor’, all she could legally say is “it is not your eyes”.

Here are some alarming statistics for Brain Tumours

* Around 1,400 new cases of primary (malignant) brain tumours in Australia each year, including 100 in children.
• This number excludes an estimated 2,000 so-called benign brain tumours that may cause
disability or (rarely) death.
• Second highest cause of death for children aged 0 – 14 years from all causes – second only to
accidental drowning/immersion3 and highest cause of death in this age group from cancer –
an average of 33 deaths per year (2003-2007).
• Highest cause of death from cancer in people aged 0–39 (average of 120 deaths per year in
2003-2007).
* No significant change in five-year relative survival between 1982–1986 and 1998–2004 (19%).
* Largest lifetime financial costs faced by households of any cancer type, at $149,000 per person, and highest lifetime economic cost of any cancer type, at 1.89 million dollars per person.
* More than 5,000 hospitalisations, 12.5 days average length of stay in hospital (2008-09).
* Brain tumour research funding is low in relation to the burden of the disease – along with lung cancer
and mesothelioma, bladder cancer, pancreatic cancer, lymphoma and cancers of unknown primary site.9

(Source: http://www.btaa.org.au/BrainTumourFactSheet2011.pdf)