Lost her sister to the same cancer ... Tara Deacon, 26, who has lymphoma at home on the Sunshine Coast. Picture: Glenn Barnes Source: News Corp Australia
EXCLUSIVE: When Tara Deacon went to hospital with what she thought was the flu the last thing she expected was that both she and her younger sister Jade would be diagnosed with the same cancer on the same day.
The sisters were diagnosed with lymphoma in 2010, a cancer that strikes 5,000 Australians a year and kills more people than skin cancer.
Tara had a fever and a pain in her right arm and chest and when tests showed she had lymphoma she asked doctors to check the lumps on her sisters neck. Her sister received the same shock diagnosis.
Thought she had the flu ... Tara Deacon was diagnosed with lymphoma on the same day as her sister. Picture: Glenn Barnes. Source: News Corp Australia
Jade passed away at the age of 22 leaving her then four year old daughter Acaica in the care of her father and aunt Tara, who now has little time left to live.
Lymphoma Australia chief executive Sharon Millman says lymphoma is a forgotten cancer even though someone is diagnosed with it every two hours and someone dies from it every six hours.
More than four in five Australians don't get an immediate diagnosis when they present to doctors with symptoms such as a cough, swollen glands, lumps in the neck, collarbone, armpits and groin, night sweats and fatigue.
"Women know what to do if they have a lump in their breast, but too many people walk around with lumps in their neck and miss out on the opportunity for early diagnosis and treatment," she said.
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Late diagnosis can be bad news for patients such as Tara and Jade who had a subtype of the cancer, Hodgkin Lymphoma, that has a very high five year survival rate of 87 per cent.
This is the type of cancer pop star Delta Goodrem was diagnosed with in 2003.
There are over 60 different subtypes of the cancer, some of which are slow growing and some of which are hard to treat.
People with non-Hodgkin lymphoma have a five year survival rate of 71 per cent.
The Cancer Council says the incidence of lymphomas has more than doubled in the last 20 years.
Now a mother ... Tara Deacon is now caring for his sister's child. Pic Glenn Barnes Source: News Corp Australia
Haematologist and Lymphoma Australia spokesman Dr Jason Butler says there is some evidence linking the disease to glandular fever but the real cause of the increasing number of cases is unknown.
Australian patients with the disease are waiting for our government to subsidise three new high cost treatments that are available to patients overseas.
Brentixumab which costs $180,000 for a course of treatment was fast tracked in Europe and the United Kingdom to teat Hodgkin's lymphoma, Ibrutnib which treats several types of non-hodgkins lymphoma is being used in the US and UK and Bendamustine which is available through a clinical trial in Australia.
Both Tara and Jade had chemotherapy and a stem cell transplants to try and beat the disease but Jade's body was attacked by her donor transplant and she passed away.
"Going through treatment together really helped," says Tara.
Three months after her sister died Tara's cancer returned and she was told she had a year and a half to live.
She's intent on completing a bucket list of experiences which recently included a trip to Sydney to see the X-Factor Top Ten, a trip to Palm Beach to see Home and Away being filmed, she's off the New Zealand this week and also plans to go skydiving, ride in a hummer and go up in a hot-air balloon.
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