Latest news with #CarlyMagnisalis
Perth Now
21-05-2025
- Health
- Perth Now
Australian mothers urge action on silent killers: ‘I'll keep going until I can't.'
Lung cancer, bowel cancer, ovarian cancer and breast cancer. They're among the deadliest diseases affecting Australian women — and too often, they're caught too late. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: The fight to beat common cancers in Australian women. I interviewed four amazing women. All mothers are either still battling one of the cancers above or have succeeded in their fight against them. And through their powerful chorus of courage and heartbreak, a few similarities are glaring. These are stories of missed signs, misdiagnoses, and misperceptions. But they are also stories of hope, strength, and survival. They're not just to inspire, but to warn. It's a wake-up call for all Australians. Carly Magnisalis is a 45-year-old single mother of four beautiful children. The rock of her household, the weight of the world on her shoulders, and suffering through an illness that no woman should have to endure. Stage four lung cancer. Hers is a story that is truly heartbreaking. She was a marathon runner, a non-smoker, a picture of health — until she wasn't. There were no symptoms traditionally linked to lung cancer. She had no cough. No shortness of breath. Her joints and fingernails hurt. An odd combination that led to a shocking diagnosis. 'I feel OK for someone with stage four metastatic lung cancer,' she tells me. 'And I'll just keep going until I can't.' There were no obvious signs Carly Magnisalis was falling sick before being diagnosed with lung cancer. Credit: Carly Magnisalis Carly is a single mother and rock of her family. Credit: 7NEWS Struck down in the prime of her life, an early educator, university student and sole supporter of her family, she doesn't know how long she has left, but is doing her best to keep positive. 'I'm 45 now and I'm thinking I'm getting close to 50, but that's a gift now,' she tells 7NEWS. 'The chances are I probably won't be around but I look at just my perspective, to grow old is a gift.' Lung cancer is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia but has the highest death rate. An estimated 9000 Australians die every year from lung cancer, half of them are women. Carly wants the view of lung cancer to change, so outcomes for people with it can improve. 'People who smoke don't deserve lung cancer. No one deserves to have cancer and I think removing that stigma away from this cancer will help research, will help to get better outcomes,' she said. For 54-year-old Stephanie Bansemer-Brown, it was blood in the stool that sent her to the GP 10 years ago, but her symptoms were dismissed. 'It's just haemorrhoids. You've just had a child,' she was told. 'I trusted my GP because that's what you do.' But her sister, a nurse, pushed for a colonoscopy. And her suspicions were confirmed. Stephanie was eventually diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer. She recalled: 'Why am I going through bowel cancer when I'm so young? I thought, like many, the misconception that bowel cancer was an old man's disease.' Stephanie Bansemer-Brown's symptoms were initially dismissed as hemorrhoids. Credit: Stephanie Bansemer-Brown Stephanie's sister insisted she seek further treatment. Credit: 7NEWS Colorectal cancer is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer and women are increasing at a higher rate than men. Shockingly, it's now the No.1 killer for 25 to 44-year-olds. Scientists are not sure why it is rising among young people, but one thing is clear: more awareness, better education, and earlier detection are desperately needed. She is joining many in calling for greater screening, to give younger Australians a fighting chance. 'If you catch it early, it's 99 per cent treatable. We [need to] listen to what those red flag signs and symptoms are. Don't dismiss them as being something else. They may well be something else, but it is worth investigating,' Stephanie said. The mother says it was her son that inspired her to keep going, even when gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and radiation left her vomiting, lethargic and confined to the couch. 'I wanted to be around to see him grow up. I celebrate every birthday now. It's an absolute privilege to be here because others are not,' she said. Olivia Curtis is battling ovarian cancer. Credit: Olivia Curtis Olivia Curtis, 40, is a mum of three. She's battling ovarian cancer. She's one of the nicest, most intelligent women I've ever met. Olivia is spending most of her time balancing home life, debilitating chemotherapy and clinical trials and advocating for better treatment for ovarian cancer sufferers. It's a disease often called 'the silent killer' because its symptoms are vague and its progression swift. Olivia felt something was not right on her tummy and subsequent scans confirmed it was cancer, but the sheer size was shocking. The tumour was 3kg, 'the size of a newborn baby'. Removal meant major reconstructive surgery. 'It took 10 hours and they all came in and did their little bit and removed the tumor from basically all of my organs,' she said. 'All of my reproductive organs were taken, my omentum, my spleen, they scraped my diaphragm. 'The surgeons came in afterwards while I still had the tube down my throat in intensive care and they said, 'we have got all visible cancer and there was a lot of it'.' After six months in the clear, Olivia's cancer returned. Credit: 7NEWS But that was only the start of what would be a painful journey. Just as Olivia was bouncing back and six months in the clear, the cancer returned. Shockingly, treatment protocols for ovarian cancer have not changed in more than 40 years. 'Funding is limited. Research is lagging. Lives are being lost. It's a horrendous disease,' Olivia said. 'We almost are at the point where we're looking at having an early detection test. We're almost at the point where we're looking at having a vaccine. 'We are on the cusp and we need to throw everything at this, we need to throw the kitchen sink at this. 'A little bit more time, a little bit more research, a little bit more money, and we'll have this cracked.' Each year more than 1700 Australian women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. One thousand die from it. The chance of surviving at least five years is 49 per cent. Like many mothers, Olivia put her family first. She cried, not for herself, but for her children. 'I've been really filled with hope and I still am. But there are moments where you just think, 'God, not so much why me, but why my family, why my kids?',' Olivia cried. I cried too. Nadine Maroney's life was turned upside down when she discovered a lump in her breast. Credit: Nadine Maroney But there is hope. Breast cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia and the most common cancer in women. More than 20,000 women are diagnosed with the disease every year, and it claims 3000 lives every 12 months. But the chance of surviving at least five years is 92 per cent. Nadine Maroney, a mum of two, was in the shower when she felt a lump under her left breast. Her life was never the same. 'The surgeon who'd done the biopsy said to me, 'good luck with your treatment', and that's when it was reality for me,' she said. 'I had to stop and think, how am I going to manage this? I had two children, beautiful kids, 10 and 13 at the time. 'It's a case of mind over matter, there was nothing I could do to control what was happening to my body, it was just happening.' Nadine went through chemotherapy, radiation, a mastectomy and a full reconstruction. Credit: 7NEWS She endured 22 rounds of chemotherapy, six weeks of radiation, a mastectomy and a full reconstruction. It's taken her years to recover. But she has. And her story is a reminder of how far breast cancer treatment has come. Thanks to awareness campaigns and routine screenings, survival rates have soared. Nadine wants other women to know they are not alone. 'I'm not one who was OK with asking for help, so I had to really condition my mind to go, 'it's OK to ask for help in this situation',' she said. 'I drew on the support of some beautiful women around me who so happened to be the mothers of my children's closest friends. 'I have nothing but absolute gratitude and love for these women who were also looking after me. 'Out of the worst trauma that can happen came the most beautiful experiences.' (Top left) Nadine Maroney, (top right) Carly Magnisalis, (bottom left) Stephanie Bansemer-Brown and Olivia Curtis. Credit: 7NEWS These stories are raw. They are painful. But they are also a rallying cry. To women: listen to your body, don't dismiss unusual symptoms. To policymakers and health authorities: these women are not statistics, they are mothers, they are career women, they have hopes and dreams and a beating heart. It's not fair they are in pain. It's not fair they are fighting for their lives. As Olivia put it, 'we need to do more and we must do better'. It's time to stop treating these cancers like an afterthought. It's time to put your mum first. For more information and support visit: If you'd like to reach out personally: jbechwati@
7NEWS
20-05-2025
- Health
- 7NEWS
Four brave mothers open up on cancer fight in wake-up call for all of Australia
Lung cancer, bowel cancer, ovarian cancer and breast cancer. They're among the deadliest diseases affecting Australian women — and too often, they're caught too late. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: The fight to beat common cancers in Australian women. I interviewed four amazing women. All mothers are either still battling one of the cancers above or have succeeded in their fight against them. And through their powerful chorus of courage and heartbreak, a few similarities are glaring. These are stories of missed signs, misdiagnoses, and misperceptions. But they are also stories of hope, strength, and survival. They're not just to inspire, but to warn. It's a wake-up call for all Australians. 'I knew my body wasn't right' Carly Magnisalis is a 45-year-old single mother of four beautiful children. The rock of her household, the weight of the world on her shoulders, and suffering through an illness that no woman should have to endure. Stage four lung cancer. Hers is a story that is truly heartbreaking. She was a marathon runner, a non-smoker, a picture of health — until she wasn't. There were no symptoms traditionally linked to lung cancer. She had no cough. No shortness of breath. Her joints and fingernails hurt. An odd combination that led to a shocking diagnosis. 'I feel OK for someone with stage four metastatic lung cancer,' she tells me. 'And I'll just keep going until I can't.' Struck down in the prime of her life, an early educator, university student and sole supporter of her family, she doesn't know how long she has left, but is doing her best to keep positive. 'I'm 45 now and I'm thinking I'm getting close to 50, but that's a gift now,' she tells 7NEWS. 'The chances are I probably won't be around but I look at just my perspective, to grow old is a gift.' Lung cancer is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia but has the highest death rate. An estimated 9000 Australians die every year from lung cancer, half of them are women. Carly wants the view of lung cancer to change, so outcomes for people with it can improve. 'People who smoke don't deserve lung cancer. No one deserves to have cancer and I think removing that stigma away from this cancer will help research, will help to get better outcomes,' she said. The missed sign that nearly cost her life For 54-year-old Stephanie Bansemer-Brown, it was blood in the stool that sent her to the GP 10 years ago, but her symptoms were dismissed. 'It's just haemorrhoids. You've just had a child,' she was told. 'I trusted my GP because that's what you do.' But her sister, a nurse, pushed for a colonoscopy. And her suspicions were confirmed. Stephanie was eventually diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer. She recalled: 'Why am I going through bowel cancer when I'm so young? I thought, like many, the misconception that bowel cancer was an old man's disease.' Colorectal cancer is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer and women are increasing at a higher rate than men. Shockingly, it's now the No.1 killer for 25 to 44-year-olds. Scientists are not sure why it is rising among young people, but one thing is clear: more awareness, better education, and earlier detection are desperately needed. She is joining many in calling for greater screening, to give younger Australians a fighting chance. 'If you catch it early, it's 99 per cent treatable. We [need to] listen to what those red flag signs and symptoms are. Don't dismiss them as being something else. They may well be something else, but it is worth investigating,' Stephanie said. The mother says it was her son that inspired her to keep going, even when gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and radiation left her vomiting, lethargic and confined to the couch. 'I wanted to be around to see him grow up. I celebrate every birthday now. It's an absolute privilege to be here because others are not,' she said. A silent killer Olivia Curtis is a mum of three. She's battling ovarian cancer. She's one of the nicest, most intelligent women I've ever met. Olivia is spending most of her time balancing home life, debilitating chemotherapy and clinical trials and advocating for better treatment for ovarian cancer sufferers. It's a disease often called 'the silent killer' because its symptoms are vague and its progression swift. Olivia felt something was not right on her tummy and subsequent scans confirmed it was cancer, but the sheer size was shocking. The tumour was 3kg, 'the size of a newborn baby'. Removal meant major reconstructive surgery. 'It took 10 hours and they all came in and did their little bit and removed the tumor from basically all of my organs,' she said. 'All of my reproductive organs were taken, my omentum, my spleen, they scraped my diaphragm. 'The surgeons came in afterwards while I still had the tube down my throat in intensive care and they said, 'we have got all visible cancer and there was a lot of it'.' But that was only the start of what would be a painful journey. Just as Olivia was bouncing back and six months in the clear, the cancer returned. Shockingly, treatment protocols for ovarian cancer have not changed in more than 40 years. 'Funding is limited. Research is lagging. Lives are being lost. It's a horrendous disease,' Olivia said. 'We almost are at the point where we're looking at having an early detection test. We're almost at the point where we're looking at having a vaccine. 'We are on the cusp and we need to throw everything at this, we need to throw the kitchen sink at this. 'A little bit more time, a little bit more research, a little bit more money, and we'll have this cracked.' Each year more than 1700 Australian women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. One thousand die from it. The chance of surviving at least five years is 49 per cent. Like many mothers, Olivia put her family first. She cried, not for herself, but for her children. 'I've been really filled with hope and I still am. But there are moments where you just think, 'God, not so much why me, but why my family, why my kids?',' Olivia cried. I cried too. Hope through early detection But there is hope. Breast cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia and the most common cancer in women. More than 20,000 women are diagnosed with the disease every year, and it claims 3000 lives every 12 months. But the chance of surviving at least five years is 92 per cent. Nadine Maroney, a mum of two, was in the shower when she felt a lump under her left breast. Her life was never the same. 'The surgeon who'd done the biopsy said to me, 'good luck with your treatment', and that's when it was reality for me,' she said. 'I had to stop and think, how am I going to manage this? I had two children, beautiful kids, 10 and 13 at the time. 'It's a case of mind over matter, there was nothing I could do to control what was happening to my body, it was just happening.' She endured 22 rounds of chemotherapy, six weeks of radiation, a mastectomy and a full reconstruction. It's taken her years to recover. But she has. And her story is a reminder of how far breast cancer treatment has come. Thanks to awareness campaigns and routine screenings, survival rates have soared. Nadine wants other women to know they are not alone. 'I'm not one who was OK with asking for help, so I had to really condition my mind to go, 'it's OK to ask for help in this situation',' she said. 'I drew on the support of some beautiful women around me who so happened to be the mothers of my children's closest friends. 'I have nothing but absolute gratitude and love for these women who were also looking after me. 'Out of the worst trauma that can happen came the most beautiful experiences.' Call to action These stories are raw. They are painful. But they are also a rallying cry. To women: listen to your body, don't dismiss unusual symptoms. To policymakers and health authorities: these women are not statistics, they are mothers, they are career women, they have hopes and dreams and a beating heart. It's not fair they are in pain. It's not fair they are fighting for their lives. As Olivia put it, 'we need to do more and we must do better'. It's time to stop treating these cancers like an afterthought. It's time to put your mum first.
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
I felt fit, healthy and was running 10km a day before I started experiencing a strange feeling in my legs. I had stage four lung cancer and I'd never smoked
It's commonly assumed that people diagnosed with lung cancer must have been smokers. This was not the case for single mum, Carly Magnisalis, who is one of an increasing number of women who have never smoked but are suffering late stage lung cancer. Prior to her life altering diagnosis, the preschool teacher, from Newcastle, New South Wales, described herself as 'healthy' and 'fit' with an active lifestyle. 'I was running 10 kilometers a day and I was involved in surf lifesaving and netball. Sports and fitness had always been a big part of my life,' Carly, 45, told FEMAIL. On top of that, Carly had a full-time job and was a busy single mother of four children - and she was studying an early education degree at university. Everything changed in April 2021 when out of the blue Carly said she suddenly started experiencing 'really sore bones'. 'My bones were hurting, especially my leg bones. I thought it was just from all the running I did,' she said. As a precaution, Carly had a chat with her GP, who was on the front foot about sending her off for blood work and scans. Initially, the results didn't indicate anything sinister. 'Everything came back fine - but the bone pain kept getting worse,' Carly recalled. 'I had to be on painkillers all day to the point where I thought I was going crazy because I couldn't work out what was wrong.' Early on, Carly showed no classic signs of lung cancer because none of her symptoms affected her chest. 'There was no cough, no wheezing, no shortness of breath - nothing that would allude to something going on with my lungs,' she said. However a more revealing symptom emerged about a month later, with Carly explaining she started to feel extreme pressure underneath her fingernails. 'It felt like my nails were going to pop off,' she said. The new symptom triggered alarm bells for Carly's doctor, who advised her to have a chest X-ray. But at that point, Carly admits she was puzzled by a potential connection between her bone and fingernail pain and her lungs. So much so that she even took her time arranging to get an X-ray done, eventually booking it in a fortnight later. When she finally did the scan, Carly heard back from her doctor within hours – and the news wasn't good. A follow-up CT scan confirmed there was large mass around Carly's left upper lung. 'The doctor said it was presenting as lung cancer,' she said. The news floored Carly given that she was a healthy, fit, non-smoker in her early 40s. But it was at this point she learnt that lung cancer was increasingly prevalent in non-smoking women. Although the specific cause is unknown, there are a number of contributing factors for lung cancer in non-smokers, which include genetics, environmental factors, specific mutations, hormonal factors and inflammatory responses. 'If you have lungs, you can get lung cancer,' Carly said. From that point onwards, some of the more hallmark lung cancer symptoms started to emerge, including a 'raspy voice' and 'coughing up blood'. Carly was referred to a local cancer hospital in her hometown of Newcastle where she was seen by a lung doctor. A nervous Carly took a friend along for support during the appointment. Frustratingly, the doctor that delivered the bad news was lacking in bedside manner. 'He just flung around the computer screen showing my X-ray and goes, "Yep, it's a big one here,"' she recalled. 'He then said, "You'll probably just have some sort of medicine and go into palliative care. Do you have private health insurance?"' Looking back with frustration, Carly says the doctor didn't properly explain that the frightening term 'palliative care' at that stage referred to arranging ongoing medications. Follow-up appointments with a local private oncologist didn't fare much better and eventually Carly advocated to be referred to someone else for a second opinion. That person ended up being her now long-term oncologist, who is based in Sydney. Under his expert guidance, Carly, then aged 41, was confirmed to have 111 Non Small Cell lung cancer NSLC EGFR 21. Breaking the news to her four children Elsie, Ruby, Nic and Coen was daunting but necessary. The children, aged at the time between six and 19, were gathered by Carly for a family meeting, where she honestly explained what was going on with her health. 'I could see tears welling up in their eyes,' she recalled. 'But I assured them, I was going to fight it.' As an added layer of difficulty, Carly's treatment and team of medical experts were all based in Sydney, meaning she needed to regularly do a four-hour round trip to the capital city and back, and spend significant periods of time apart from her family. At this stage, the suggested course of medical treatment was a targeted therapy tablet taken daily, which Carly says 'shrunk' the cancer significantly within the first three months. By February 2022 a thoracic surgeon was able to operate to remove the tumour, along with other affected parts of the lung. After a tricky recovery, it took a full year post surgery before Carly started to feel like her old self. But during that time she admits there was also the added financial stress of having to stop working and trying to manage the loss of household income. By 2023, Carly finally felt she was starting to claw her life back together again. She had returned to work in a reduced capacity and was once again busy with her active family life. Even though her follow-up appointments showed no cause for concern, Carly couldn't escape the niggling feeling that something wasn't right - and so she once again advocated for herself and insisted on having new tests. In June 2024, Carly's worst fears were confirmed after scans showed that the she now had stage 4 metastatic lung cancer with a small cell transformation. This meant she now had two types of cancer - non small cell and small cell lung cancer. 'I was gutted because this changed the game,' Carly said. 'My survival rate became less than 5 per cent.' Once again, Carly upended her life and was separated from her family in order to be in Sydney for the duration of her treatment, which included four rounds of chemotherapy and five rounds of radiation. Understandably, this period took a toll both financially and emotionally. Post treatment, the prognosis of stage four cancer continues to loom large over Carly's head. 'Now, these next two years are really crucial.' Carly now continues to take a targeted therapy drug while also being regularly monitored with PET scans and MRIs as her doctors keep a watchful eye for any changes. 'I'm living three months to three months scan,' she said. 'You're just hoping you get through the next five years. Living in a world of a lot of hope is where I'm at.' Despite it all, Carly remains focused and optimistic in the face of a tough diagnosis. She is passionate about doing advocacy work with organisations like Lung Foundation Australia and is determined to destigmatise lung cancer and make others aware that it doesn't discriminate. Carly also wants to raise awareness for much-needed research into treating and preventing lung cancer, which will hopefully benefit future generations. The single mother is also concerned by her own experience of having to make a four-hour round trip to a major city in order to receive quality cancer treatment - even though she lives in a major regional city. 'My post code or finances shouldn't determine the standard of treatment I receive or how quickly I am able to get it,' she said. 'Having have to travel to Sydney for my treatment has had a direct impact on my ability to work and be there for my children. 'We do have a good health care system in Australia and I'm grateful for that – but we can always do better.' This July, a National Lung Cancer Screening Program will roll out across the country in an effort to diagnose lung cancer and lung diseases earlier. As Carly looks towards her own future, the preschool teacher admits that she does have 'moments of doubt' that creep into her mind. But she refuses to let it dictate the way she lives her life in this moment, with Carly saying she's determined to take each day as it comes and keep things 'really simple and enjoy the small things'. 'Spending that really good quality time with my kids and just being totally available to them is a gift,' she said. 'As long as there's hope, one per cent hope, I will keep trying.
