By Casey Neill
FERNTREE Gully’s Denis Burt knows more about courage than most.
The 75-year-old has battled follicular lymphoma for almost five years.
He’s now calling on others to be brave – and shave or colour their hair between 11 and 13 March in this year’s Leukaemia Foundation World’s Greatest Shave.
“Even if you’re not going to shave, send a donation,” he said.
“You think it’s not going to happen to you, but it could.”
“The better the service you get, the better your chances of getting through it.”
Mr Burt knows first-hand the benefits of the fund-raiser.
He was diagnosed with a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2005, which makes his body’s lymph glands expand.
Regular chemotherapy is the main treatment.
“While they can get you into remission, you still have to have some continual treatment because it has a habit of recurring,” Mr Burt said.
“It’s one of the troubles with lymphoma, like most of the blood diseases.”
“But thank goodness it’s not as bad as leukaemia.”
Mr Burt has required treatment at The Alfred hospital up to once a week to keep the disease at bay.
“That’s a long way away from us, and that’s the biggest difficulty and where the Leukaemia Foundation stepped in,” he said.
The foundation’s transport program is funded through the World’s Greatest Shave and takes patients from their doorstep to the hospital waiting room.
“The fact that they were there took a real load off,” Mr Burt said.
“You could ring up and know the car was going to pull up, take you in and bring you back right to the door.”
Mr Burt is now in the last phases of another round of chemotherapy.
“They tell me that the response has been very good, it’s reduced significantly,” he said.
“Hopefully this will punch it back a bit further and I’ll only have to go in every three or four months for a top-up dose.”
Many are not so fortunate. Blood cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related death in Australia.
About 10,000 people across the country are diagnosed with leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma or a related blood disorder each year. About 40,000 are living with one of these diseases.
Cash raised through the World’s Greatest Shave funds free services to support patients and families living with blood cancers, including education, emotional support, and transport to and from treatment.
The fund-raiser also supports blood cancer research to find better treatments and cures.
Readers can visit www.worldsgreatestshave.com or call 1800 500 088 to sign up or donate.
