00:00Social worker Leanne Duggan navigates life with her guide dog Esther, but everything
00:07changed when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year.
00:11It was hard, it was shattering.
00:14Leanne had extensive surgery and chemotherapy, only to be told the cancer had spread and
00:19her treatment wasn't working.
00:21I had previously been told that if it went terminal that there was nothing really that
00:28could be done.
00:29Leanne's tumour has a genetic mutation which made her a candidate for a new targeted drug
00:34therapy.
00:35There are just 33 patients worldwide on the trial, and doctors at the Kinghorn Cancer
00:40Centre at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital say they lobbied hard to get Leanne accepted.
00:45Some of the drug companies are very, very afraid to test such drugs on patients with
00:50disabilities for fear that the consequences and the side effects may be greater than otherwise
00:54they would be.
00:56Leanne Duggan uses braille to identify her medications and keep a daily diary of her
01:01symptoms and side effects.
01:03We needed to have a really stringent process by which we ensured that she was taking the
01:08right number of tablets at the right time and our pharmacy could account for this.
01:14Leanne also has an extreme needle phobia, so the trials team installed a central line
01:20to make the frequent blood tests more comfortable.
01:22Leanne has had a remarkable tenfold drop in her cancer markers since starting the trial.
01:27Her scan also shows that the activity that we saw in the cancer is no longer active right
01:34now, so for now things are looking very promising.
01:38But if my trials team hadn't had the willingness to so strongly advocate for me, I may not
01:47have got on and it would have cost me my life.
01:50Removing barriers to treat a disease that doesn't discriminate.
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