The Cancer Survivor – is the fight ever over?

We all know a cancer story. A cancer fighter, a cancer loss. A cancer survivor.

What we don’t often know is the story of life after cancer.

What happens then? For one such survivor, it’s the unforeseen story of the after that she fought for people to know.

This story is about my very beautiful friend. A mum. A mentor. A life cheer leader. An absolute inspiration of kindness and '80s music knowledge. Skilled at drying her hair out the window as she raced to work. Generous in every way - including at laughing at my jokes.

This story is about Angela Lonergan.

Angela was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 1988, at the age of 14.

She was treated by Mantle Radiation, which targeted from her mouth to mid-abdomen. After five years of check-ups, her oncologist gave her the all-clear.

Angela had said, “They told my mum that I had the same chance of developing cancer as anyone else and would need no further follow-up.”

At the time, this information was true. But five or so years later, evidence and studies showed this to be false. Angela was actually 4.6 times more likely to get cancer and 80% more likely to get breast cancer.

Angela, a sole parent and passionate community worker, was living a cancer survivor life unaware of the cells primed to be invading her body.

At 41, Angela discovered the statistics that she was up against. Only, she didn’t learn of her risks through her GP, nor by the specialist or health district that treated her. In 27 years, not one health professional who knew her medical history, raised any concerns. She learnt the statistics after the lump she found in her breast was called Cancer.

Angela had a double mastectomy to remove six aggressive tumours. This was followed by chemotherapy, radiotherapy, reconstruction, Herceptin, and hormone treatment. At 42, they found a skin cancer on her lip.

At 43, she learnt that she had significant damage to three of her heart arteries. Not long after, suspicious lumps on her thyroid resulted in its total removal. Looking back, Angela was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid in her twenties and experienced significant dental problems since a teenager.

It is of no coincidence that Angela’s health problems were found between her mouth and her mid-abdomen—the radiation field of her 1988 treatment. This link is not denied by health professionals; late effects issues have been accepted by the medical profession from the early 1990s.

But, Angela stressed, “It’s these links, and seriously increased risks of a poorer quality of life, which the community isn’t hearing about.”

The range of late effects depends on the type of treatment a person received, the part of the body treated, their age at the time of treatment, their gender, and the amount of time passed. For Angela, being 14-years-old at the time of first treatment, female and having radiation in her chest, were the key variables which created the late effects of illness in her body.

Angela never regretted having her initial treatment. “It has allowed me to be here now, complaining about my current health,” she had laughed. “But I hate the fact that I was never told of my risks.”

Had she known, she could have monitored her health more closely, been granted annual mammograms and more regular skin checks. She would have been diagnosed and treated earlier. She could have had preventative surgery — removing her breasts before the cancer could even develop. She would have been more prepared for the psychological impact that her misfortune has played in her life, and her son’s life.

She could have had a chance of a long life.

Though Survivor Clinics have been set up in some areas, and there is a better understanding of how to manage late effects, what Angela wanted is for other cancer survivors from the same time, to also know that they could be of higher risk for a range of illnesses and cancers.

“This is especially the case for childhood cancers, where the impact of past treatment on developing bodies has proven to be particularly harmful.” Angela regrets that, “There are people out there who just don’t know.”

For Angela, just as her hair had begun to grow to a length where she didn’t feel like a cancer patient, doctors found a recurrence of breast cancer, showing up as further tumours in lymph nodes in her neck. Angela began ‘another round of treatment’ more times than she could count. For Angela, being a cancer survivor had meant she was to be a cancer fighter for the rest of her life. A fight that would end on the 21 March 2021.

Angela’s hopes were that Late Effects Cancer Clinics would be the norm in every local health district, providing a funded and coordinated approach to post-cancer health care that understands how to manage and monitor the collective impacts of treatment for survivors.

“I hope, that by people knowing more, the survivor story will be kinder.”

If you received cancer treatment between 1960 and 1990, speak to your doctor to discuss your own risks and concerns.