Major Australian Cancer Research Foundation fundraiser and champion Fred Pham will take to the television air waves tonight to talk about his unique experience battling cancer.
Pham will appear on the popular SBS ‘Insight’ program, hosted by Jenny Brockie, in a show that focuses on terminal illness. Jenny will ask patients who might have just weeks or months to live the big question. ‘Should they fight on or accept the inevitable? Should their doctors hold out hope, however slim, or deliver the hard medical reality?’
These decisions are much tougher as medicine and medical technology becomes increasingly sophisticated. Patients, families and doctors wrestle with these ethical and moral dilemmas at the end of life..
Fred Pham, 47, has been told that he has incurable cancer but is still fighting. He is currently on “fourth-line chemo”, which doctors tell him has a slim chance of working.
Fred is well known to regular ACRF website readers as our homegrown champion who ran to raise money for cancer research in this year’s City2Surf.
Determined to fight, Fred has gone on clinical drug trials and traveled to Vietnam to find herbal medicines that might help him. He says that if it means he is able to spend more time with his kids, he thinks it is worth a try, even if there are side effects.
Meanwhile, a huge team of Fred Pham supporters has rallied and united by the former teacher and are now determined to hold a series of marathon races around Australia to help him raise more than $100,000 for the ACRF. See our website for details
Apart from Pham other guests on tonight’s program hosted by Ranjana Srivastava a Melbourne oncologist who has recently written a book about working as an oncologist and the moral dilemmas she has come across.
Also a guest Jeff Szer the head haematologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital on the ethics committee at his hospital, which approves the trial of new cancer drugs, Don Mudge a 62 year old who was diagnosed recently, with incurable colon cancer. At this time he was told he had 6 to 9 months to live. His first bout of cancer was in 2004 with bowel cancer, and others.
A live online chat to the public has been organised for 8:30pm for families of cancer sufferers.
Screening – Tuesday 7:30pm SBS ONE. Repeated – Thursday 7:30pm SBS TWO, Friday 1:30pm SBS ONE and Monday 2:30pm SBS ONE.
Overview on SBS Website: ‘Holding On’ – Insight.
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