Charlotte Varcoe
RADIATION treatment in Mount Gambier/Berrin could be economically difficult for those living more than 100km out of the city, according to Robe resident James Yates.
Throughout the year thus far, a campaign has been ignited across the Limestone Coast to build a radiation therapy in Mount Gambier/Berrin to relieve travel stress on those needing the treatment.
During the campaign, many patients receiving or have received radiation treatment have told their stories of living in caravan parks or forking out excessive amounts of money in order to receive the treatment.
More recently, more than 16,000 signatures in support of radiation treatment in the Limestone Coast were presented to the State Parliament, triggering a Legislative Council review.
One of these signatures was Mr Yates himself, despite him praising travelling to Adelaide for his own radiation treatment.
“I was diagnosed with prostate cancer at the end of 2021,” Mr Yates said.
“My Prostate-specific antigen had become radical within six weeks of when it was detected.
“It showed up as 14 after being at four for years before showing up as 42 within a six week period.”
Mr Yates said despite being anxious about the sudden shift in the beginning, he was soon put onto radiation treatment by his specialist in Adelaide.
“The cancer had gone into a couple of lymph nodes around the area as well as my prostate,” he said.
Mr Yates then spent eight weeks receiving radiation treatment in Adelaide where he travelling to the capital city on a Monday morning for an evening radiation treatment appointment.
He would then stay at the Cancer Council accommodation until Friday where he received treatment early in the morning before heading back home.
If Mr Yates had received the radiation treatment in Mount Gambier/Berrin, he said he would have travelled a substantial amount more than if he received it in Adelaide due to driving to and from Mount Gambier/Berrin each day.
“What people do not realise is if they have private health insurance they can claim about $100 on fuel if they travel more than 200km,” he said.
“Accommodation cost me nothing through the patient assistance transport scheme (PATS) and I was able to keep my accommodation for the eight weeks because I did not claim travel on the scheme.”
After reading reports about the call for radiation therapy services in Mount Gambier/Berrin, Mr Yates said he was critical there was not an independent study done earlier.
“There is a vast amount of staff needed for a treatment centre including specialists, counsellors, nurses and a range of other things needs to be done too including tattooing your body for line ups beforehand,” he said.
“There is far more to it and there is a range of staff involved who need qualifications.”
He said many people across the Limestone Coast had signed the petition without completely understanding the entire situation, claiming it was not as simple as “going in for the treatment and heading back out”.
“There is preparation for your body and it is one of those things the average person would not understand unless you were connected to it or have been through the experience,” Mr Yates said.
“Morally people support the idea and as has been said, instead of bashing the political party, the mistake in my opinion is the funding had not been previously allocated into a full, unbiased survey into whether it is viable.”
Despite his concerns, Mr Yates said he was in support of a radiation therapy service in Mount Gambier/Berrin, so long as it was proved to be viable.
“It is not going to be viable to pull people from the Upper South East such as Keith, Naracoorte, Kingston and Bordertown because there is no Cancer Council facility here or accommodation subsidies,” he said.
“I have signed the petition myself and am not against radiation therapy here but only if it is feasible and if Mount Gambier and its nearby communities would have enough volumes of people to justify it.
“It goes beyond whether we want it or not and is wanting something we cannot have economically.”
It has previously been announced a feasibility study will be done in regards to radiation therapy in Mount Gambier/Berrin and is hoped it will be completed by the end of the year.