Supermum taking on cancer

Lachlan Chamberlain, 12, was feeling tired on Monday July 18, 2022.

He’d had a couple of big weeks at school and his mum Andrea thought nothing of it when her son wanted to rest.

When Lachlan started to get swelling around his neck, Andrea was concerned and booked an appointment with her GP.

“There was still a lot of COVID around at the time, so the doctor ordered an ultrasound on Lachlan’s glands because she was concerned, along with blood tests, but we weren’t thinking anything sinister at that time,” Andrea said.

Lachlan was feeling miserable, and with his dad working away FIFO, caring for the family was down to his mother.

A few days after Lachlan’s tests, Andrea received a phone call from her GP.

“They said we needed to head straight to the Emergency Department in Cairns, so we headed straight there only to be told the results came back with indications of leukemia,” Andrea said.

“Lachlan is someone who takes a while to process things and I needed some time to get my head around it before telling him.”

After receiving the news, they were told to pack their bags immediately for treatment in Brisbane.

Andrea admits the hardest part was hearing Lachlan’s concern for his brothers who came into his room and started crying.

“Even now two years later, Lachlan is finding it hard to leave the house and deciding what to take with him,” Andrea said.

I kept saying 'it’s all right mate, you know you won’t forget anything'.

“I’m a chronic overthinker; I like to know what’s going on and I’m a rules-orientated person, but I’m also creative and I like to think outside the box.

“It only recently struck me that it wasn’t until eight weeks after his diagnosis that I took a breath.”

Andrea and Lachlan stayed in Brisbane for nine months while leaving her two other sons at home and a husband who had to keep going away for work.

“It was something that I was not ready for, the impact on Lachlan’s siblings who were finishing school or working; I simply couldn’t bring them with me,” she said.

“They understood their brother was sick and he wasn’t having fun, but they just wanted their mum home.

“It’s been two years of living like this, trying to do my best.

“I get asked how this experience has changed me. It’s a tough one. Did I make the right decisions? Should I have done things differently?”

For now, the future is looking good, and Andrea’s experience is set to help others with the community-minded mum putting her thoughts towards the Queensland Cancer Strategy 2024.

The Strategy, which was announced in June, received input from more than a thousand people all over the state into the treatment and prevention of cancer.

“Lachlan’s story is just one story; you’ve got to keep moving forward and sometimes you get to choose which way you can go,” Andrea said.

“From the beginning, Lachlan and I have said this is a journey, and you don’t know what the outcome will be. You don’t know what you don’t know.

Queensland Health is a system and if you accept that, and work within that system, you can go a long way.

“All things can be resolved if you talk to the right people and get the right information.

“One thing I’d like to see come through with this strategy is peer support.”

The family’s experience has changed Andrea’s outlook, as she hopes by sharing her story, others might feel that there is support out there.

“The treatment will continue, but after two years we’re doing one step at a time,” she said.

“We’ve had hard conversations, and Lachlan has helped his brothers understand all this, and he adores them.

It would make me feel so happy if one person saw this and realised they aren’t doing it on their own.

“You can’t control all the medical stuff, but you can control how you react, what you do, and what you say.

“That attitude has given us peace at times throughout this journey.”

Find out more about the Queensland Cancer Strategy here: www.health.qld.gov.au/system-governance/strategic-direction/plans/queensland-cancer-strategy