THE END OF THE CONFERENCE

The conference finished yesterday - at the closing we all lit a candle for those women who are NEWLY diagnosed - a woman is diagnosed every 3 minutes!! The candle was to represent a prayer for each of them, that they receive the courage and the strength for the journey they are embarking on.

I felt this was a very nice touch and highly appropriate end to the conference where the whole theme was about working together and not expanding our energies on reinveting the wheel.

The Ugandan speakers were extremely interesting - the team included a surgeon and a survivor - they explained how they were working to the best of their ability with the very limited resources they have available and also trying to overcome to social stigma associated with breast cancer. Dr Moses told us that the country has 50 million people and of that 50% are under 15 years old. The national health budget is $12 per person - so of course there is nothing for breast cancer treatments and awareness - so most present as a Stage 3 or 4 at diagnosis.

The President of Europa Donna was another speaker - she outlined the mission of the organisation and also spoke of the disparities in Europe in services and conditions.

My conclusion from this entire conference is that we are so lucky in Australia to have access to wondeful treatments and support services! Even those who live in remote areas are FAR better off than so many other parts of the world. Australia is indeed a lucky country and we are blessed to be living there.

Many of the delegates I spoke with expressed a keen interest in coming to Australia the Reach for Recovery Conference which is being held in Brisbane next May - so it will be a chance to renew friendships. The photo is one of myself and some new survivor friends from the Bahamas.

All the dragon boaters that were in Caloundra and are here have told everyone what a wonderful time they had in Australia and what a fabulous event it was. Check the coordinators blog for more information on the dragon boater side of things!

It has been a wonderful time here, a great sharing experience and I have had the pleasure of meeting lots of some incredible people.

Michelle