,Nurses a beacon in the lives of breast cancer patients

Jean de Klerk is all too familiar with the impact cancer can have on a family.

Before Mrs de Klerk’s fight with breast cancer began, her husband was given a cancer diagnosis.

While both Mrs de Klerk and her husband were receiving treatment, their son lost his battle with an aggressive form of cancer.

Long to trips to Perth for radiation treatment and many daunting appointments can leave cancer patients feeling overwhelmed, but McGrath Breast Care nurses are helping to make the process as easy as possible for patients in the Mid West.

Based at Geraldton Hospital since 2015, Zeina Hayes and Rachel Apat are continuing the work McGrath Breast Care nurses have provided to the area since 2008.

Between them, they offer support to people with breast cancer and their families in the Mid West region.

“These girls will phone me out of the blue and ask me how I am and it always seems to be on the days when I’m really struggling,” Mrs de Klerk said.

“It’s a difficult situation but you take the best out of it with people like this around you.

“Going to Perth is quite scary but they arrange everything, from the accommodation to the type of care you receive.”

Both Ms Hayes and Ms Apat hold postgraduate qualifications in cancer nursing and co-ordinate the care and treatment of breast cancer patients.

Ms Hayes has spent the majority of her nursing career working in oncology and palliative care and said the patients she has cared for have changed her life.

“I wanted to become a McGrath Breast Care nurse to have open and honest conversations about specific issues breast cancer patients face,” she said.

Ms Apat agreed. “It’s really rewarding for us when people get through their experience and we try as best we can to keep them positive throughout it,” she said. “We’re so lucky that we get to meet these beautiful, amazing people.”

After a lengthy treatment, Mrs de Klerk is now considered disease-free, but will continue to be monitored by doctors.

Despite being relieved the treatment is over, Mrs de Klerk said saying goodbye to Ms Hayes and Ms Apat will be like “losing a limb”.