World Cancer Day 2021 - Who are you and what will you do?

February 4th 2021

World Cancer Day every 4 February is the global initiative aimed at raising worldwide awareness, improving education and catalysing personal, collective and government action.

This year's World Cancer Day's theme, 'I Am and I Will'…so who are you and what will you do?

To mark World Cancer Day, we walked around Lift and asked a few friendly faces this exact question!

Work dogs!

December 29th 2020

The dogs of the Lift staff were not forgotten at our Christmas Party! The Lift work dogs received home made dog bandanas to put them in the Christmas spirit!

Lift Staff Christmas Party

December 14th 2020

Last weekend the staff and families of Lift celebrated the end of the year with a spot of lawn bowls!

2020 has been challenging for many businesses and Lift wouldn't have managed to get through the year without the care and commitment of this wonderful team.

They have shown incredible flexibility, dedication and resilience to make sure that the patients of Lift were able to continue to access support services without interruption during the challenging times we all faced this year.

This team lives the values of ACCESSIBILITY, CARE and EMPOWERMENT and in doing so, have created a wonderful environment to be part of at Lift.

Men’s Health Awareness Month

November 20th 2020

Did you know that November, or Movember is men's health awareness month?

Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches to raise awareness of men's health issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide.

Many of the Lift staff have unsuccessfully been attempting to grow moustaches this month, so we've taken a little creative licence to get the message out there!

Lift is now offering services at Windsor Gardens

November 2nd 2020

Lift is very excited to let you know that we have started offering services at Windsor Gardens! Co-located with Adelaide Cancer Centre and ICON, you can now find us at 480 North East Road, Windsor Gardens.

Services now being offered at Windsor Gardens are DIETETICS, PHYSIOTHERAPY, 1:1 EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY and SPEECH THERAPY.

If you would like to make an appointment to see one of the Lift team for these services at Windsor Gardens, please call us on 08 7231 8000

A big thank you to the lovely staff at Icon Cancer Care Adelaide and Adelaide Cancer Centre for making us feel so welcome at our new home!

The ‘Lift Your Voice Choir’

October 21st 2020

A few months back we were approached by Antonietta, a lung cancer patient at Lift, about starting a choir. Antonietta is a singing teacher and is passionate about the many wonderful benefits of singing and music for everyone, but was especially keen to share her love of singing with people who have been diagnosed with cancer.

And so... the ‘Lift Your Voice Choir’ was born!

Led by the formidable Antonietta as choir master, we held our first rehearsal this week and had an absolute blast. The choir is open to Lift patients, their family and the Lift staff.

We hope this group will grow over the weeks and have already booked our first performance at the Lift Christmas Party!

Lift Coffee Catch-up!

18th August 2020

Lift hosted a lovely coffee morning this month for past and current patients. It was a lovely opportunity to meet new faces and from the feedback we’ve had, it will be something we plan to do again! Thanks to everyone who made the effort to attend.

South Australians with lymphoedema receive funding for medical garments

17th April 2020

Yesterday it was announced that SA will now be providing funding for compression garments for people living with lymphoedema. This is a huge achievement and would not have happened without the hard work of the LSGSA (Lymphoedema support group of South Australia). The dedicated and very passionate team at LSGSA have been lobbying the government for 8 years. Read more below about what this means for those living with this chronic condition.

News story from abc.net.au

By Rebecca Chave and Isadora Bogle

After eight years of lobbying, South Australians living with lymphoedema will have access to a compression garment subsidy scheme for the first time.

Key points:

• Many living with lymphoedema are prescribed compression garments

• The multi-million-dollar scheme is established in South Australia for the first time

• Eligible individuals will receive up to two garments every six months

Prescribed compression garments are the primary treatment for many patients with the chronic condition.

Lymphoedema can occur as a side effect of cancer treatment when lymph nodes have been removed or damaged causing lymph fluid to build up in tissue under the skin

A support group for people living with the condition spent eight years lobbying for the subsidy.

The State Government has committed almost $2.5 million over the next two years to the scheme, with the Federal Government also contributing funding.

'Life changing' scheme

President of the Lymphoedema Support Group of South Australia Monique Bareham said people who previously couldn't afford the garments would now be able to buy them.

"For some people who have not been able to leave their homes because they have such bad mobility issues, they'll now be able to," Ms Bareham said.

"It's just, it's an unbelievable life changing subsidy scheme for South Australian lymphedema community.

"It really is bringing tears to my eyes when I'm thinking about the people I've spoken to and what it means to them."

Buying the garments herself costs Ms Bareham $800 every six months.

"You have to always have two sets on the go — to allow for washing — and they need to be changed every six months," Ms Bareham said.

"For some people, their sets of garments can be up to $2,000 or more, depending on what their needs are."

South Australian Minister for Health and Wellbeing Stephen Wade said the scheme would provide ongoing, sustainable access for individuals to receive up to two sets of ready-to-wear or custom made garments, every six months.

"We know lymphoedema compression garments can reduce the development of associated complications and improve health outcomes for people living with the condition," Minister Wade said.

"This will be tremendously beneficial for people who require these specialised compression garments to help manage their condition, enabling both greater independence at home and the ability to be an active part of the community."

Happy Easter!

9th April 2020

Easter feels a little different this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still celebrate! This week at Lift we have been in steady training for a long weekend filled with chocolate. We’ve also taken the opportunity to record our Easter wishes to you all. Stay safe.

The great toilet roll give away!

27th March 2020

We finished the week on a high here at Lift with our great toilet roll give away!

In what brought a big smile to the faces of many of our Lift community, we were gifting toilet rolls to those who came through our door for services today!

Lots of smiles, lots of laughs, lots of fun!

In the News - Lift Patient Shares his Inspiring Story in The Australian

22nd February 2020

Mark Naley was a gladiator on the football field, a tenacious rover whose heroics in the 1987 grand final helped steer his adoptive side Carlton to the VFL premiership.

Three decades on, the South Australian football legend has been fighting the biggest battle of his life against recurring brain ­tumours that were diagnosed after he blacked out while driving in 2016.

By rights, the man known as “Nails” should no longer be with us. The tumours he has suffered would have killed anyone within months a few years ago, but thanks to the pioneering work of his Adelaide surgeon, Amal Abou-Hamden, and her team, Mark Naley is alive and still kicking goals.

“She’s a magician,” 58-year-old Naley said. “I wouldn’t be here today without the work of Amal and the rest of the team.”

Naley is a realist and none of the doctors working with him are offering false hope. Brain cancer remains incurable and will get him in the end. But the cutting-edge work being done in Adelaide has done two things that are changing the prognosis for tumour sufferers such as Naley — significantly extending his life while protecting his quality of life.

As with his footy, the fight against Naley’s cancer has been a team endeavour. Dr Abou-Hamden insisted on being joined by Naley’s oncologist, Tony Michele, and anaesthetist Michael Schurgott to explain the process they had used to attack his tumours, which are classified as the most ­aggressive and life-threatening.

Dr Abou-Hamden says that until a few years ago, patients such as Naley could usually just have one operation, and that the operations often came with terrible side effects because good parts of the brain could be inadvertently removed or damaged.

She is using a technique combining fluorescence through a new brain drug called Gliolan that lights up the tumorous parts of the brain, coupled with the use of neuro-monitoring and electrodes during surgery to enable the safe removal of the maximum amount of tumorous tissue.

“The fluorescence lets us better identify the tumour and we use electrodes to stimulate the brain fibres to work out which parts of the brain he needs,” Dr Abou-Hamden says.

“Ten years ago we would have given a patient such as Mark a six- to 12-month chance of survival, whereas with this approach we can prolong life, preserve brain function and provide quality of life.”

Mark Naley playing for Carlton in 1987. Picture: Supplied

As a result of this method, Naley has had four operations since 2016, the latest last week at Calvary Hospital. Aside from some numbness in his left hand and some barely perceptible slurring of his speech, he is doing well.

He has also had bouts of radiotherapy and chemotherapy ­between these operations, managed by Dr Michele, who describes himself as “the mop-up guy”.

“The good thing about this new approach is that the less Amal leaves for me to deal with, the better,” Dr Michele says. One of the biggest weapons in Naley’s survival arsenal is his ­remarkably upbeat outlook, a close family and a great circle of friends within the footy community.

He says he has been humbled by the fact that the cost of the Gliolan drug has been met by the AFL Players Association, saying it has given him the extra years he yearned for with his family, ­especially his grandson, Finn, who is almost two and whom Naley would never have met had it not been for the treatment.

He is throwing himself into rehab through the Lift Cancer Care Services organisation and has taken up singing lessons and guitar. He is setting himself goals. He intends to perform a musical set at this year’s legendary Two Mates wine lunch at Adelaide institution the Glenelg BBQ Inn, an old-school steakhouse that has long been a favourite haunt of South Australia’s footballers.

Regarded as one of the finest footballers of his generation, Naley played 236 games with SANFL club South Adelaide from 1980-86 before cracking the big time and heading to Victoria, winning the premiership in the first year of his 65-game career with Carlton. His goal in the final quarter of the 1987 grand final helped seal the Blues’ 33-point win over Hawthorn. He returned to South Adelaide in 1991 and won that year’s Mag­arey Medal as the best and fairest player in the SANFL. He is ­beloved by SA footy fans for his starring role in the now defunct arena of State of Origin football, representing SA in 16 matches against Victoria and WA in the 1980s.

Naley still loves footy and enjoys going to SANFL games with son Sam and grandson Finn.

“I’ve got a lot to look forward to,” he says. “And I’ve got to keep this in perspective.

“When I saw Amal the other day she had just operated on a six-year-old. I’m lucky.”

Patient Christmas Party!

18th December 2019

What better way to mark the end of the year, but with a party?! It was with great excitement that the staff at Lift planned this year’s patient Christmas party as an opportunity to catch up and share a story and a laugh with those we have worked with throughout the year.

The afternoon tea was made even more special this year as we had a special guest singer, Campbell James. Campbell is a very talented young vocal performer, who recreates the 1940s, 50s and 60s with his Sinatra inspired performance style.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this lovely afternoon!

In the news - Lift patient and Author Peter Goldsworthy

3rd September 2019

In Detective Sergeant Rick Zadow, Peter Goldsworthy has created a character with legs, if not eyes that see. Blinded by a gunshot to the head, Rick’s career has been cut short, but he has a rich inner life, and a self-destructive streak that takes him on a perilous, and at times hilarious, journey through the pages of his creator’s first crime novel.

The book is called Minotaur for the Greek god with a man’s body and the head and tail of a bull, who lives at the centre of the Labyrinth. At various points in Goldsworthy’s labyrinthine plot, he has sown the seeds of what might become a second adventure for Rick and his actual and virtual world of absorbing sidekicks, including guide dog Scout and digital assistant Siri. Whether that will come to pass will depend very much on the fortunes of the author.

A year ago, Goldsworthy was diagnosed with myeloma, a serious cancer of the bone marrow that affects the plasma cells. The news came at the end of what he describes as an eight-year marathon writing Minotaur. He took breaks along the way to work on another couple of projects — including the libretto of the opera Ned Kelly — as well as working, as he always has, as a GP, but it was a debilitating process.

“I’m not sure I’ve got another literary marathon in me,” he says now. “They are always exhausting, and obsessive, and a weekly, sometimes daily rollercoaster of thinking you are a genius and knowing you are an idiot.”

Goldsworthy’s diagnosis came almost by accident, after he’d booked a long-delayed operation for a knee replacement. The day before his appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon, the radiologist who had taken preliminary X-rays called him in.

“He said, ‘Yeah, you need a replacement, but look at the bone marrow, not the bone, the marrow’,” he recalls. “He thought it looked pretty funny. So I went straight down to the surgery and took some blood. I didn’t really believe him. I took the blood myself and sent it off, and three days later, sure enough, he was right. It was myeloma.”

Goldsworthy has lost two friends to the disease, so even without his medical training, he knew this was a serious cancer. One of them was the actor Paul Blackwell. A couple of months before his death last February, Blackwell and his wife went to dinner at Goldsworthy’s house. “We were comparing drugs,” he says.

With the diagnosis, life was put on hold. An end-of-year trip to Sri Lanka was cancelled, as were plans to attend the premiere of Ned Kelly at Perth Festival in February. He began the process of selling his medical practice. The literary marathon that was the writing of Minotaur had, however, not yet finished. As it turned out, the final draft was completed while the author was in the cancer ward of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, undergoing the first bout of what would be three months of chemotherapy. It was so toxic that for the first 10 days he was kept under observation in hospital. “It wouldn’t be the first novel finished on chemotherapy,” he says lightly.

Goldsworthy’s buoyant mood on the day SAWeekend visits him in the inner-city terrace he shares with his wife, Lisa Temple, owes something to the fact that this is “a Dex day”. The cocktail of drugs he’s now on includes Dexamethasone, which speeds him up at the start of the week, and leaves him flat by Friday. “It’s cortisone, which I have Mondays in a big dose,” he says. “So Mondays and Tuesdays I talk too much and I don’t sleep very well … I’m a bit manic. So shut me up if I don’t shut up. But I don’t mind it because it gives me energy.”

For more about Peter Goldsworthy visit his website here.

Yes, we practice what we preach!

28th August 2019

Yes, we do go on about the benefits of Exercise Medicine for our oncology patients, but as we all know, regular exercise is good for all of us!

Exercise is known to

• boost mood

• improve mental health

• improve sleep

• manage weight

• improve bone and muscle health

• reduce risk of many chronic health conditions

• increase chances of living longer

The staff at Lift are committed to exercise for all of the above reasons and below are a few photos to show the different ways the practice what they preach!

Lift attends the BCNA Adelaide Conference

29th July 2019

LIFT was lucky enough to be invited to attend the BCNA Adelaide Conference held in Adelaide on the 27th and 28th of July.

Titled "Together Towards Tomorrow" the weekend was a wonderful opportunity to listen to a range of speakers, meet new friends, and catch up with a few old friends! As well as a wonderful opportunity to socialise, the convention brought together a range of speakers who offered great insights to topics such a lymphodema, adjusting to ‘the new normal’, body image after cancer, exercise medicine and the financial toxicity of cancer.

The end of the first day was marked with a mini field of women ceremony on the banks of the Torrens.

A big thank you to the  Breast Cancer Network Australia for including us in this wonderful event!

VOX POP - What does the Lift logo mean to you?

4th July 2019

One of the most common questions we get asked at Lift is “what does your logo represent?”. Our answer is usually something along the lines of “whatever you want it to represent!”

Our logo was designed with much thought and care as to the type of centre we wanted to create. The brief given to our designers was that we wanted to create an image or shape that highlighted the coming together of disciplines and services. We also wanted to reference the clinical background of the 2 founders, that of Physiotherapy (body) and Psychiatry (mind) and the belief that mind and body cannot be easily separated.

When our designers came back to us with this logo they explained that the shapes represented an oak leaf, a symbol of strength and a sun, rising up behind the leaf.

Today we have asked you, “what do you think the Lift logo means"?” and we have had a variety of interpretations. We love the fact that there is no one answer to this question and it really is a logo that can be interpreted any way you want to. Even if that is a lemon and a lettuce!

Lift Cancer Care Team walks the Mother's Day Classic to raise money for breast cancer research 

13th May 2019

For the second year, Lift has entered a team into the Mother’s Day Classic to help raise money for breast cancer research.

Team Lift was comprised of a lovey mix of staff, patients, family and friends. Some of our young team members were not so keen on the walking element of the event which made for a very leisurely stroll and a late decision to switch from the 7 km walk to the 4km walk.

A few of us have been involved in this event individually in the past, and every year we comment on how well organised the morning is. This year was no different with group warm ups on stage, a get pink tent - complete with pick face paint and hair spray for anyone looking for an extra touch of the colour de jour! Volunteers were roaming around handing our hundreds of pink helium balloons, making for a very impressive sea of pink as participants were waiting to start off.

The most beautiful part of this event was the very present spirit of support and camaraderie amongst all in attendance. For Team Lift, it was an opportunity to meet the family and loved ones of new friends. This was a highlight of the event for the Lift staff as it was very special to be trusted and treasured enough to be introduced to the nearest and dearest of the wonderful women we have the privilege of working with every day at Lift.

If you have every considered coming along to this event but haven’t quite made it, pencil it in for 2020. See you there!

World Cancer Day 2019

Feb 5th 2019

World Cancer Day is an international day to recognise the global burden of cancer and shine a light on ways we can reduce the number of premature deaths for cancer and improve quality of life and survival rates.

World Cancer aims to call upon government leaders and health policy-makers to significantly reduce the global cancer burden, promote greater equity, and integrate cancer control into the world health and development agenda.

This year’s slogan, ‘I Am and I Will’ is an empowering call-to-action urging for personal commitment and represents the power of individual action taken now to impact the future.

On February 4th, we asked members of the Lift community to think about what they pledge to do and we photographed their thoughts.