Hello, my name is Julie McCrossin and in 2013 I was successfully treated for stage four throat cancer with 33 sessions of radiation therapy and weekly chemotherapy.
In my professional life before cancer, I had experience as a radio broadcaster and television presenter. So when I was feeling much better, I got together with a Radiation Oncologist, Associate Professor Sandra Turner, and we made a series of brief videos about my treatment and recovery explaining all the things I wished I had known before my treatment started. And we filmed these videos in the bunker where I was treated with me sitting on the radiation therapy machine, or LINAC, that delivered my treatment.
Those videos are on the medical college website for Radiation Oncologists in Australia and New Zealand and they’ve been viewed by thousands of patients and their families. They are part of the Targeting Cancer Campaign which is all about raising community awareness about Radiation Therapy.
Since then I’ve made many more videos and they are all on this website.
They are designed for health staff as well as patients and families.
The purpose of these videos is to provide up-to-date, evidence-based information about cancer treatment from senior clinicians – medical, allied health and nurses – who treat large numbers of patients in major hospitals and cancer centres around the world.
We talk about how to improve the radiation therapy experience for patients and about innovations in treatment.
All the videos are made in partnership with cancer doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. And I’ve interviewed patients and family members as well.
Many of the videos are filmed on location in hospitals and cancer centres so you can see the treatment rooms and technology we are talking about.
We meet surgeons and medical oncologists, as well radiation oncologists, because many cancer patients need all three of the main cancer treatments: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
However, the primary focus of many of these videos is radiation therapy because this is the cancer treatment that most people know very little about. And we hear about proton therapy as well.
I really hope you find these videos helpful and informative.
And if you, or someone you love, is facing cancer treatment, I hope these videos help you to understand more about your treatment and help you to work out the questions you want to discuss your cancer team.
Thank you.