CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Ms STEGGALL (Warringah) (16:13): Two young dads in Warringah have sat with me in recent times and shared diagnoses no family should have to face. They are two different diseases with different stories, but the same problem: more medical research funding is desperately needed. One urgent question: why are more young people being diagnosed with diseases we still do not properly understand?
The first is Ron, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at just 35. He and Anna are raising two young children while facing a disease that is aggressive and progressive and currently has no cure. MND affects the nerves that control movement.
As the messages from the motor neurons stop reaching the muscles, people gradually lose the ability to move, speak, swallow and breathe. These people can still feel, think and understand what is happening while their body gradually stops responding. Every day in Australia, two people are diagnosed with MND and two people die from it.
Around 2,800 Australians are living with this cruel disease, and more than half of people with MND are now under the age of 65. Recently, Ron and Anna invited me to join the Middle Harbour Public School Big Freeze and get dunked to help raise funds to fight MND. I was very happy to be dunked.
The second story I want to raise is that of Chris. He's 37. He had no symptoms and no genetic history of it, and yet he has been diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer.
He's a dad of young children. Bowel cancer is one of Australia's most common cancers and one of the deadliest. Australia has one of the highest rates of early-onset bowel cancer in the world.
The risk of being diagnosed before 40 has more than doubled since 2000, yet there is little funding for research and better diagnosis. This must urgently change. Too many young people are still being misdiagnosed or dismissed because bowel cancer is wrongly seen as an older person's disease.
We urgently need stronger investment in early-onset bowel cancer research. We must understand why Australia is leading the world in early-onset bowel cancer and we need better awareness across our health system and the community so younger patients are taken seriously, diagnosed earlier and treated faster. I say to Ron, Anna, Chris and every family facing these diseases that your advocacy matters.
I know there were many others here in Parliament House last week advocating for early bowel cancer detection. Thank you for sharing your incredible stories. This parliament must listen to their stories and their experiences, invest in the research that can save lives and have greater funding for medical research.
And, of course, we need wraparound care, because when diseases strike at an early onset the implications for young families is so incredibly dire for earning capacity, family security and the raising of young children.