Memorial Page 2

MEMORIAL

MILU

This is the story about my dog, Milu who suffered a lot of from cancer. These are sad stories but that’s why our society should pay more attention to cancer, isn’t it?

My dog was diagnosed with bowel cancer last year, and his body was tooweak to undergo surgery. Animals cannot talk, they will keep silenceeven though they are painful. The pet medicine is now well developed inmy hometown; therefore we missed the best time for treatment. Sadly, my dog, Milu passed away. My parents decided to euthanize him. Since then, my family has grieving over the loss of a family member. My dadcould not accept a new dog because he was still suffering from the loss of Milu. Our life is the same as before, but cancer has taken away my Milu forever.

I hope I can contribute for this project to raise awareness of the impactcancer has on us. It stolen the one who we loved and makes patient sun bearable pain. I hope our medical science can make further progress and conquer this disease in the future. There are some pictures of Milu. The last one is he doing treatment after the illness, very thin but still strong. We miss him so much 😢

SOCKS

This is a photo of my best mate Socks. Socky unfortunately passed away from a tumour behind his eye. As the tumour grew it started to protrude from his eye however as he was not in pain it was only awful for me to watch. Watching my best mate die was one of the most heart wrenching experiences I have ever gone through. However, I feel so blessed to have had those last few months with him where I was able to focus on spending as much quality time together and going on as many adventures as we were able to.

I had the option of chemo or surgery to remove the tumour however due to his age (he was almost 17) and the quality of life he would have been left with, I decided that the best course of action for Socky was to manage his health and enjoy what time we had left together. I had a great team of vets at the Hawthorn East Vet clinic and they helped me manage Socky’s final few months to ensure he was not in any pain and did not have to suffer for one single day. I will be forever grateful for their help and support during one of the most difficult periods of my life.

It’s been 3yrs since his passing and there is not a day that goes by where I don’t think of and miss him. I still have a little cry every now again but mostly when I think of him now I smile and laugh at all the beautiful memories I have and will cherish for the rest of my life. He will forever hold a special place in my heart.

TIANA

This is the story I would like to share with everyone. I am a 28-year-old Chinese girl, who was diagnosed with stage 3 colony cancer in Feb 2021 and just recovered from a 4-month treatment. During this period, I had two main surgeries including a laparoscopic surgery to remove the lesion and a surgery for implant a chemo-port into my vein. Afterwards, six cycles of chemotherapy were received to remove any possible remaining cancer cells.

The cancer could be genetic thing, based on the words from my oncologist, since my father had the colony cancer 10 years ago in China when he was about 40 years old. My father had been cured in the hospital of China, but the thing was that no doctors had reminded our family to get the DNA test. Therefore, I had no clue what was going on with my health until I felt painful every day. Being through those tough days I realized that supporting cancer research is necessary, no matter how big or small my contribution is. Meanwhile, I had been taking good care during all the treatments, especially when I had chemotherapy treatments at Warringal Private Hospital Day Oncology Centre.

I was so lucky to have treatments in Australia. I do really want to thank all the nurses, doctors and my friends they helped me to get better, both physically and mentally. There is also a special person in my life, my partner, Zhipeng Cao. We have known each other since we were at year 7. Now he is a cancer researcher who work at Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute. He is the only family member who is in Australia taking care of me during the time. I cannot come so far without him.

MUSTAFA

My dog has been part of my family since I was 10. It was my first dog, I was happy to have a dog to take care of. He had a crazy personality, he would most of the time be lovely. However, sometimes he acted like a psycho (biting, barking for no apparent reason etc.). We shared many Christmas and celebrations.

Unfortunately, 7 months ago he was diagnosed with malignant cancer. The vet tried different approaches and medications. But due to the cancer’s nature, it’s spread quickly over the system. My mom had to take the final decision to suppress him. It has been a tough decision, but in perspective it is the most loving action that we can for them. Avoid unnecessary pain. It is ironic, because we always think that cancer affects other people and animals not close to us.

Until one day we become part of the others affected by it. It changed my perspective and approach about multiple issues that are not affecting me at the moment. Maybe we are here to give voice to those who are tired of fighting an inner battle alone.

NADINE

I love animals and I’ve had a handful of friends have cancer survived it and some family and friends that have passed from cancer. When I was 16, I lost mum to cancer in 2000. Initially it was breast cancer but spread to her lungs and brain. Mum was only 40. The family Pomeranian, Ruby was such a joy and good distraction.

Ruby was a loving dog and had such a funny personality .She also barked like crazy before I had my first epileptic fit and being diagnosed with epilepsy and losing a mother to cancer people didn’t know how to deal with this and didn’t return calls and stopped socialising with me.

Twenty years later I smile when I see photos of my late Mum, Karen and Ruby passed from old age. I’ve never taken a day for granted.

ELLA BURNETT

Both my grandmothers Ros and Alma battled and beat breast cancer. Throughout my life they have been such inspirations to me, they are the strongest women I have ever known. I especially admire that despite having cancer they would continue to be a rock for the family.

Here’s a photo of my grandmother Ros.

THE MILLEN FAMILY

Bundy..he was our fur child.. mans true best friend. He loved to swim and roam tall grasses and sit on your foot… to get as physically close to you as possible. He was always there when you needed someone to listen… he sat.. he rested his head on you and you felt that it was all going to be ok. He helped our children walk and was always by their side…

Until the day we noticed a lump in his collar bone that didn’t leave… and within a two week period- X-rays showed us a terrible cancer that would see us make the hardest decision of our lives. We had to say good bye..

we had wonderful vets who helped us give him the best send off- we we able to lay him to rest in 5 acres of fruit trees. We miss him everyday and our hearts have never been the same

TOBY & JESSIE

Both my 2 pets that have recently passed have had cancer. Toby (black and white DLH cat) he had bowel and pancreas cancer, so we had to put him down in February, we didn’t know what was wrong until I saw him starting to lose weight and not eating much and drinking lots of water.

Jessie (Choc Labrador) she passed on the 26/07 this year, we found out 2 years ago she had cancer in her groin area and we were told she’d live for about 2 years, the cancer ended up spreading to her heart so she ended up having a heart attack and a fit and she happened to knock over a bike and that landed on her head, we asked the vet and they said she was gone before the bike hit her and she didn’t suffer, i was the one who went out to go feed her when i found her like that so i am a bit traumatised.

SUMBIT YOUR STORY

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