Mt Aspiring Challenge continues to inspire
The pain and anguish of watching a loved one go through their journey with cancer is something that tens of thousands of Australians are experiencing every day.
For Betty Roberts, whose son David passed away more than 20 years ago, it remains a fresh and impactful memory. But it is also a memory which inspires her to continue fundraising towards blood cancer research at The Alfred through the Mt Aspiring Challenge.
David Roberts was just 22 when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, in 2000.
A burgeoning explorer and alpinist, who graduated from Monash University with a civil and computing engineering degree, David’s life was turned upside down upon hearing the news.
Despite going into remission once after a first bone marrow transplant, and a successful second transplant the following year thanks to a donation from his sister Jayne, David passed away in 2003 aged just 25.
“My son David, he was an adventurer, even from school,” Betty said. “In his first year of uni, he completed the Kokoda Trail and climbed Mt Aspiring, a 3027m-tall peak that is one of New Zealand’s most recognisable landmarks.
“The following year he made an ascent of Mt Cook (3724m) and blew us all away.
“Unfortunately, he then became ill, which was a shock to everyone because he was such a fit and healthy young man.”
Initial chemotherapy treatment was successful, but he was then moved to The Alfred for a bone marrow transplant using his own stem cells.
Maureen O’Brien, who became David’s favourite nurse during his time at The Alfred and still works as a clinical nurse consultant in the haematology department today, said “the treatment room always had a positive atmosphere on the days David was there”.
“He was always selfless and so much fun,” Maureen said.
“I remember him down in Alf’s Cafe selling bandanas to raise money for cancer – with an IV drip attached. Looking after David was such a pleasure.”
David started the Mt Aspiring Challenge in 2002, determined to aid the very program at The Alfred that was helping him, by vowing to summit Mt Aspiring for a second time.
The plight of David’s situation and cause struck a chord and, after a successful climb, about $90,000 was donated with great help from David’s family, friends and business colleagues.
Now, some 20 years later, almost half a million dollars has been raised through the lifetime of the foundation.
Director of Haematology at The Alfred and Director of The Alfred Cancer Program, Dr Harshal Nandurkar, said the power of this fundraising towards research was multi-fold.
“Our focus is on enabling and teaching the next generation, so that our skillsets can be transferred and amplified down the line so that more people can take advantage of this knowledge,” he said.
“This holistic process, which involved so many aspects of care, is about making tomorrow better than today. Patients should know that what they are participating in today is not just helping them, but that they are making tomorrow better for others.
“While state and federal governments fund direct aspects of care, fundraising such as this is vital for our foundations. People helping in their own way, through dollars or otherwise, helps with a brick in the wall that will build our foundations up.
“Whether it is one brick, or 100 bricks, it is all part of the wall that is supporting our aspirations.”
Head of the Lymphoma Service at The Alfred, Professor Constantine Tam, said the current research focused on CAR T-cell therapy, which is a lifesaving procedure using a patient’s own immune system to cure otherwise inoperable lymphoma.
“It is a specialised procedure performed in only six centres in Australia,” he said. “We have successfully set up a program which detects these cells in patients after infusions – this ability was recently crucial in saving the life of a patient, where we were able to adjust his treatment in real-time.”
To read this story in Impossible, where it originally featured, download it from this site.
