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Samuel’s crusade to vanquish cancer

Samuel’s crusade to vanquish cancer

Spreading the word about personalised treatment for all patients, of all kinds of cancer, Love Your Sister’s (LYS) Samuel Johnson and LYS crewmembers were in East Gippsland last week, rallying an army of supporters to take the cause to the Federal Government next year.

Samuel is seeking to establish a coordinated national approach to the collection, usage and storage of metastatic tissues for cancer research.

Last week he visited Lakes Entrance, Paynesville and Bairnsdale, sharing the LYS story at shopping centres, schools and other venues including Bairnsdale’ s Old Station Café, a cocktail gathering at Paynesville’s Pier 70 and a gathering at Bairnsdale’s Main Hotel. He also visited patients and staff at Bairnsdale Regional Health Service’ s oncology ward.

Samuel also met up with people at Bairnsdale and Paynesville IGAs and spoke to year seven to nine students at Bairnsdale Secondary College.

Samuel’s father was born in Bairnsdale, so his visit was a kind of welcome home.

“I have 72 cousins in the area. But don’t blame me,” he laughed.

Samuel’s mission is a simple one when put into words to ensure all cancer patients receive the right treatment to fight their individual cancer battles right from the start but in practical terms it’ s a huge undertaking.

In 2014, the gold Logie winning actor, author, advocate and co-founder of Love Your Sister, a charity set up after the terminal breast cancer diagnosis of his late sister, Connie, raised more than $1.4 million for cancer research by riding his unicycle 15,955 kilometres around Australia.

LYS has since raised more than $10 million for cancer research, Samuel recognised with an Order of Australia (OAM) and named Victorian Australian of the Year 2018. Governor General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, also presented Connie with an OAM just prior to her death in 2017.

When Sam and his entourage visited East Gippsland last week he was more than 150 days into his 700-plus day tour of Australia during which he is educating the masses about personalised treatments.

A personalised treatment for all cancer patients is Samuel’s goal. He has done his homework, stepping out of public life for more than a year to speak to the people in the know, the scientists and researchers of the industry. Now he needs the financial backing to take his plea to Federal Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, next year and make it happen.

Current cancer treatments see patients put on a drug in the hope it will work. It takes three months before it is known if a treatment is suitable. If not, it’s known as a false line of treatment, and the next drug is tried. Connie went through three false lines of treatment before the fourth was found to be successful. But by then it was too late and her cancer had metastasised to her liver, lungs, spine, pelvis and knee.

“Personalised treatments offer us the opportunity to rid ourselves of false lines of medication entirely,” Samuel said.

“Instead of the blanket trial and error approach we do something entirely different. We take a tissue sample, we take it to a laboratory, test it genetically to find out which medicine is going to respond best for that individual tumour, because all tumours are different, and then we try to put the patient on the right drug, the first time.

“Personalised treatment offers us such an exciting future. I’ve been speaking to the entire scientific community about it and they really want to bring it in. In Germany and The Netherlands cancer patients are offered personalised treatments. It is available in Australia, but you need to look for it, with around 40 what are called silos around the country offering the service, but it will cost you between $5 and $10,000.

“The tissue samples are sent overseas for testing and they’re keeping the data there.”

Samuel wants the testing to be done here, at a reasonable cost, with a coordinated national approach to the collection, usage and storage of metastatic tissues for cancer research.

“I’m told it is the future of medicine, not just for cancer,” Samuel said.

He has the knowledge, now Samuel needs the people power and financial backing from the people to take it to the government.

He is looking to build upon the $10m already raised by LYS.

“That $10 million was just an apprenticeship,” he said.

“Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, has come out in support of personalised treatment. He has committed $65 million towards it, $15m for cancer and other rare diseases by 2030, so that’ s a start.

“I want to bring it in sooner. How do we pay for it is the question, and the answer is through the savings through the false lines of treatment. It’s actually cheaper believe it or not.

“It is way more effective, cuts out the wastage and is so much cheaper.

“I understand that we have to revolutionise the healthcare system, we have to reeducate oncologists, there’s a whole lot of stuff that needs to happen. I want to be the guy that puts this thing firmly on the public agenda.”

Samuel says he will walk up the hill to Parliament House in Canberra in December next year and outbid Mr Hunt’s $15 million, with the help of the people.

In order to raise ongoing funding, LYS recently launched its F* Cancer Bank, which allows people to make small donations each month.

To register a commitment to help make personalised treatment a norm for Australian cancer patients, visit the Love Your Sister website or Facebook page and follow the links.

PICTURED: Bairnsdale Secondary College welcomed Love Your Sister’s (LYS) Samuel Johnson and LYS crewmembers on Friday, November 8. Year seven to nine students were lucky enough to listen to Samuel spread the word about personalised treatment for all patients, of all kinds of cancer. Afterwards Samuel challenged the students to a tug-o-war, which he described as “this is awesome” and an egg and spoon race. Despite the seriousness of Samuel’s mission he brought smiles to the students faces and engaged with them on another level.


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