I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in November 2018, when my son was just eight weeks old.

The doctor said there was no cure and all I could think of was my children having to grow up without a mum.

Thanks to research, I’ve had more time with my family than I thought possible at first. Each new treatment option has meant me reaching a new precious milestone, like getting to walk my daughter to school on her first day.

Costs of this appeal have been covered by untied funding, making it possible for 100% of your donation to fund cancer research.

That line has all your treatment options on there and as you go through them you get closer to the end of the line. It needs to keep extending for you to keep going.

I’m coming to the end of my options now. That’s why I want to help raise funds for more cancer research – because that’s the only way to discover more treatments and give people more time, whether it’s for me or for other people in the future.

Theranostics is a pioneering approach to tackling cancer that combines both therapy and diagnostics into a single, highly-effective process.

This is achieved by attaching a diagnostic isotope, designed to proactively seek out tumour cells wherever they are in the body, to a targeted therapeutic isotope that kills those tumour cells as soon as they are located.

The work of the ACRF Molecular Theranostics Laboratory – currently being built thanks to a $1.5m grant from ACRF in 2021 – will have excellent potential to help people with metastasised cancers.

Their groundbreaking approach will allow doctors to monitor and adjust treatment in real-time and tackle the problem of residual tumour cells, to prevent cancers from developing treatment resistance.