Leukaemia Foundation

This podcast shares the stories of the people we have connected with who have faced a blood cancer so that you, our listeners, can gain insight, find purpose and take inspiration.

Before we get into today's episode, the Leukaemia Foundation acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which we share these stories.

We recognize their continuing connection to land, sea and community.

As the first storytellers of this country, we pay our respects to their elders past and present.

That brings us to the end of today's episode.

We hope that you have found it helpful in some way.

We here at the Leukaemia Foundation are a proud member of Talking Health Tech Podcast Network.

If you would like more information on today's show or our services, please feel free to call 1-800-620-420 and someone will be able to connect you with your local blood cancer support coordinator.

Medicare, the public system, and a fight that's more medical than financial.

The Leukaemia Foundation has just published research that says otherwise.

They asked 655 Australians living with blood cancer what their diagnosis actually cost them, and about one in eight said that they'd missed, delayed, or canceled treatment because of money.

I sat down with two people to work out how that happens, one who has lived it and one who has spent the last two years measuring it.

Now, just before we start, we made this episode with the Leukaemia Foundation.

The survey numbers are theirs, and we'll say so every time.

Everything else we checked ourselves.

in 12 months.

Yeah.

And Darren? Both the Leukemia Foundation and the Cancer Council have been good because there have been connections there through being in there and making contact.

So they do have a lot of different ways that they help as well.

Yeah.

Give people voices to talk about, you know what, that phase is often the hardest and be prepared for it because it's not what you think it will be.

Talking Blood Cancer, a podcast for those facing blood cancer by the Leukaemia Foundation.

Find the best way forward using their own purpose that they have in their life and using their passions.

I've lost fear and doubt.

Hi, I'm Kate Arkady and I'm the host of Talking Blood Cancer.

This podcast shares the stories of the people we have connected with who have faced a blood cancer so that you, our listeners, can gain insight, find purpose and take inspiration.

Before we get into today's episode, the Leukaemia Foundation acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which we share these stories.

We recognize their continuing connection to land, sea and community.

Early in my career I was given the job of well let's build this out, let's do better and so one of the programs we came up with was we provided a fleet of cars to transport leukaemia patients because they're very immunocompromised and so public transport out of the question.

So that was an ongoing and sustained program which the Leukaemia Foundation could rely on year on year and Holden could put its hand on its heart and say, we're a transport business.

We can provide transport to the community and people in the community that need it.

So that's a kind of corporate example, but what I think we're now seeing with the relationships between the foundations.

So I started doing that, and I thought that was really, really fun.

And then Leukaemia Foundation saw my videos and asked me to come do public speaking to young adults across Australia, and I told myself, "Fuck it, I'm gonna start saying yes to things." And I said yes, and I went and spoke, uh, about my story to a bunch of different school kids across Australia, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide coming up later this year.

And I realized that, fuck, I've actually got so much to give to, to young people, especially young men.

And I started doing that, and I realized it came i- that feeling of doing something for someone else came back to me, and, uh, and it gave me that sense of purpose.