Passing the Baton

Nicholas is an cancer advocate, surviving and thriving after Acute Myeloid Leukaemia at the age of 16. He is currently studying a Bachelor of Social Work at La Trobe University, hoping to enter the world of adolescent and young adult cancer care with his unique perspective.

Yvonne is a Nurse Practitioner in the clinical haematology service at Peter Mac & the Royal Melbourne Hospital, clinical lead for the Allogeneic BMT long term follow up service, Associate Director of Nursing & team lead for haematology, late effects and paediatric specialist nurses.

Yvonne has a special interest in late effects experienced by patients after Allogeneic BMT, particularly screening, risk reduction and self-management. Yvonne is also interested in sexual health issues, chronic graft versus host disease and post-transplant rehabilitation. Yvonne has led and been involved in research studies focussing on innovative shared care models of long term follow up and strategies to optimise post transplant recovery including exercise programs. She has completed a research study supported by the VCCC nursing research hub that explored facilitators and barriers to transitioning from paediatric to adult long term follow up.

Meg originally worked as a Radiation Therapist and educator at RMIT University in Melbourne before moving into strategic oversight of programs at Cancer Council Victoria including 13 11 20 Cancer Information and Support, Cancer Education and Peer Support Programs, and the Victorian Cancer Clinicians Communication Program. Meg has been instrumental in building communication skills programs for health professionals and non-clinical staff working with cancer patients in Victoria. Meg has personally delivered more than 1000 experiential healthcare communication skills programs to several thousand clinical and non-clinical staff. Meg is a member of the International Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH) and is the Australian representative on the teaching subcommittee (tEACH) for this group. In 2016, Meg convened the inaugural Teaching Communication in Healthcare Conference and Education Program in partnership with EACH and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, bringing together more than 120 local and international delegates.

Meg has led a previous Cancer Survivorship grant bringing exercise and information to regional cancer patients using telehealth. Meg moved to Deakin 3 years ago, and has co-designed Your Thoughts Matter, a whole of organisation intervention for communication skills training currently being implemented at 3 health services. Over the next 3 years, Meg and the team at OCPH Deakin will deliver Conversations Matter to 7 regional Cancer Centres. Meg has post-graduation qualifications in individual and organisational coaching, adding to her skill set of program design, education, and facilitation.

After completing medical training at Monash University, Dr Wheeler was a medical resident and registrar at Monash Medical Centre prior to commencing Radiation Oncology training at Peter Mac. After gaining the FRANZCR he completed a fellowship at The St Jude Childrens research hospital in memphis TN, USA. Dr Wheeler became Chair of the Paediatric and Late Effects Service at Peter Mac in 2005 and is particularly interested in ameliorating the long term effects from radiotherapy.

Bernadette is a qualified Occupational Therapist who has been working in cancer care for the last 14 years, primarily in the areas of service improvement and supportive care. Bernadette is currently a Senior Project manager with North Eastern Melbourne Integrated Cancer Service (NEMICS). Bernadette has a strong interest in cancer survivorship careand has contributed to the implementation of an innovative new service model delivering survivorship care through community partnership. Bernadette is passionate about patient self-determination and enabling people with cancer to have the best quality of life possible, both during and after treatment.

Associate Professor Kylie Mason is a clinical haematologist with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where she leads the Late effects and Survivorship and the Classical Haematology teams. A/Prof Mason is a member of the Late Effects Haematology clinic and has an interest in the transition of young adults from the paediatric arena to the adult hospitals. Her background includes experience in AYA health as a committee member of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the RCH and through CanTeen. A/Prof Mason is herself a survivor of Acute Leukaemia and understands first hand the importance of good transition and long term care of people living beyond cancer.

A/Prof Justin Tse is Clinical Dean, St Vincent’s Clinical School, The University of Melbourne. He has been involved in medical education for twenty years and has interests in intern work readiness and e-learning. He is also involved in cancer research and completed his research thesis on Prostate Cancer screening. He is a primary care physician and serves as a Research Fellow for the Cancer Council of Victoria and an advisor to the RACGP on cancer related care.