Source : Perth Now news
June Williams has written a book called You Have 6 Times.
It’s about her journey with Phase IV lung cancers and, she assures the Advertiser, it’s a good story even though she’s not certain how it’s going to stop.
A fan of movie novels, the realization of this one is a cliffhanger.
She has really turned 61 and now outlived the six-month outcome, for it’s now four years since her earth was turned upside down.
” I left it that because I don’t know what the future holds”, she said.
She finished it just, while in a position the physicians call” firm disease”, and feels fairly good.
She says “relatively” because although she looks fit and also her medicine has unpleasant side effects, including dizziness in her toes and eye, a dirty eye inflammation.
” I’m even on high dosages of steroids so I’m completely super”, she said.
” My father has told me I have to quit renovating”.
Husband Steve has been a member for WFI in Katanning since 1986 and the pair bought their Kojonup land in 2007 where they run animals and increase sunflower and grains.
As a non-smoker, Mrs Williams ‘ diagnosis came as a complete surprise.
She thought she had a consistent thread until she collapsed and was flown from the land to Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth.
She was given treatment and therapy, which didn’t job and had great side effects, so she started doing her own studies and looking for a clinical trial.
That she succeeded is testament to her tenacity and her stamina.
” I thought I had found one, but I was devastated when I was told I didn’t meet the parameters”, she said.
” Then I got a call in the middle of the night to say there was a genome trial in WA which I could join and that’s what I did.
” If I’d continued with the chemo I would be dead because it was a really bad treatment for the cancer I had,” she said.
” I didn’t want to be a whiny patient but I’ve found you have to be a squeaky wheel to get anywhere at all.”
With a Federal election campaign in full swing, Mrs Williams’ is a topical case study for the debate on rural medical services.
” When I collapsed there was no doctor in the local hospital and I was dealing with a paramedic over the phone,” she said.
” Fortunately, the ( Royal ) Flying Doctor Service was fantastic but I’m not sure if people really understand how difficult it can be in a remote location.”
The book came about because she wanted to help people who might be in a similar situation and to encourage them to speak up.
” I want people to be an advocate for themselves, to ask questions and to keep asking questions,” she said.
” I focused on getting on this trial and I know that if I had done nothing, just sat and wallowed, I wouldn’t be here.”
Writing the book was easy, as she has always loved reading, starting with Enid Blyton as a child and moving on to the crime and mystery works of Anne Cleeves and Minette Walters.
” I just vacillated between a biography or a cancer story but I knew I wanted it to be something someone could pick up in a waiting room or before a flight,” she said.
” It’s about encouraging others to understand you can live with cancer and it doesn’t have to be a death sentence.”
Part of her rationale was to put down for posterity how much her family and friends mean to her.
” I wanted to put things in perspective,” she said.
” I wanted to do it for family and friends so they could see what they have done for me.
” They have been marvellous”.
She may not know about the long term but the short term involves a trip to Hawaii and a European family cruise is at the planning stage.
Her latest scan showed no change in her cancer from 2021 which she said had” shrunk and stabilised”.
There may not be a cure but Mrs Williams shows you can live with it and write your own endings.
The book can be found in hard copy at the Donnybooks and Gift store in Donnybrook, or online, with all proceeds going to the Council Council WA and the Perkins Institute.
