Federal Health department support patients living with NET Cancers.
On the 25th of July, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, joined NET Cancer patients to recognise the need for greater resources, support and education of NET Cancers within the community and the medical community, by presenting the Unicorn Foundation co-founder and CEO Simone Leyden, with a grant to build these resources.
The grant is for a total of $280,000 over four years.
We are grateful to our patients who travelled to Blairgowrie from Melbourne and as far as Ballarat to have morning tea and share their stories with the Minister. Top of the agenda was reimbursement of drugs such as Lanreotide on the PBS for non functioning NET patients, as well greater resources and improving the care of our regional patients. We also showed the Minister the newly produced NABNEC recruitment video which he watched with great interest as we all strive for better recruitment of patients onto clinical trial.
The Unicorn Foundation plans to use the funds to build on their vital online resources such as webinars, continue the successful patient forums nationwide, continue critical support services, maintain their database system, develop a disease specific patient friendly app that will help develop research priorities, build a network of interested Health Care Professionals and provide educational materials, among other projects.
We are very grateful to the Minister and his department in recognising the needs of a cancer patient group often overlooked, and helping improve their outcomes.