Wednesday 30 March

Today is like a whirlwind.  We have lots to do at the clinic and apart from the building work there is data entry to be done.  Some time ago the clinic’s computer was stolen along with research data about the screening clinics.  This is vital information to have at hand, especially when we seek funding.

A few of us get to input some of the many files of data.  It is a fascinating snapshot into the lives of women in the Kathmandu valley.  We notice that many women that are screened have never attended school, and if they have, many only achieve primary level.  When we come across some who have actually made it to high school or college we yell out with glee.  Education is a given for us, not so for many people in developing countries.

We are taken on a tour of the hospital across the road from the clinic, the Sheer Memorial Hospital run by Seventh Day Adventists.  They do amazing work there, and some of the doctors are volunteers from overseas.  We hear that some come for a 3 month stint, but stay on for years.  There is no ‘free’ hospital in Nepal but the Sheer Memorial hospital charges a very small fee for service.  Even still this is beyond the reach of many.  I’m saddened to hear that there is a high incidence of suicide and suicide attempts by young people in the region, probably no higher than in Australia, but it is depressing to hear.  Unfortunately there is no mental health follow up for these young people. My heart goes out to them and their families.

The building work nearly comes to a halt, as there is a tree that needs some branches to be cut.  Apparently it is some sort of holy tree and the workmen are not the right caste to commence the cutting.  One of our strapping men is nominated as an honorary member of the right caste and sets to work, chopping branches.  Once he begins the task the others are able to take over.  Problem averted and the concreting begins.  By the time we finish our community work at the clinic there are 6 posts up, concreted and ready for roofing.

Now we just need to raise more funds for the roof to be finished!

We are all adjusting to camp life, the dug out toilets are not as scary as first thought and the tent is getting organised.   Our crew looks after us beautifully with great dinners each evening and huge pots of either orange cordial or ‘calla chiya’ black tea to quench our thirst.  This afternoon we even had a warm shower, well a private ‘shower tent’ with a bucket of warm water to splash over ourselves.  I ask myself “is this camping or glamping?”

 till next time,

Julie xx

Tuesday – 29 March 2011

Enough of sightseeing – today we begin our adventure.

It’s a very early start – the alarm clock has a mind of its own and goes off sometime before 4am.  My roomie has already showered and washed her hair before realising that it isn’t quite wake-up time yet.  No problem - just get some more kip in before daylight!

After a great 5 star breakfast we all pile into a bus with our guide and camp staff.  The bus trip is, as usual, an eye opener with chooks, dogs, bikes all over the place and buses crammed with people not just on the inside but on the roof as well.  I’m amazed at the amount of rubbish in the streets, it looks like there’s a garbage strike with wrappers, plastic bags, bottles, packaging strewn hither and thither, but wait….I don’t think there are any garbage collectors…the garbage just IS.  Note to self – get over it Julie you’re not in the land Oz now.

We arrive at the town of Banepa and the bus winds through the back streets to the village where we will stay for 3 days.  The locals have never seen anything like us before, descending upon their village and taking over an empty field.  We all watch as the camp crew transform the area into our cosy campsite.  It’s a home away from home for us, and something akin to having the circus come to town for the locals.

 We are greeted by everyone with the Nepali version of hello, “Namaste” and the brave children call out “what is your name?”, collapsing into fits of giggles when you tell them.  It’s hilarious.

 Once we unload our gear we pile back onto the bus to go and visit a women’s screening clinic, just out near a town called Bhactapur. The clinic has been organised for women from the surrounding area to come and be screened for cervical cancer and other related women’s health issues.  The health staff also deliver an education session on breast cancer.  The women gather around waiting patiently for their turn.  They all look beautiful, dressed in traditional bright coloured saris.  If we were back in Australia I imagine the women would be slouching in jeans and trakkies.  These women may be poor, but they are rich in style. I’m totally impressed.

Some will have never had a women’s health check before, many have infections that can be easily treated with antibiotics.  We find out later that of the 200 or so women screened, 16 have possible pre-cancerous lesions.  Without the screening they may never have found out or received treatment.  Our ACCF group includes a doctor and a nurse who get to stay at the screening clinic for the afternoon with our AYAD volunteer Danielle, learning first hand about primary health care in the developing world.  They look like they’ve won the lottery.  The rest of us head back to the clinic for some building work.

Back at the Nepal ACCF headquarters we are greeted with masala tea and biccies. The Director, Dr Surendra B Bade Shresth gives us a warm welcome and then we head on up to the roof to check out the building progress.  Unfortunately in the Kathmandu Valley electricity supply can be a bit tricky and due to load shedding every day the builders are behind as they require electricity to cut the steel needed for the building.  The foreman looks a bit nervous about having us around.  We desperately want to help, but I think we might just be getting in the way.

We have a little bit of a language barrier too.  But thanks to one of our team who just gets stuck into it, we are all soon ‘fixing’ the steel posts in readiness for concreting.  The site could do with a bit of good old Aussie workplace health and safety as the foreman’s wife is running around and doing what looked like heavy work wearing a pretty sari and just some flip flops on her feet.  Building Nepali style – it’s like nothing else.

We arrive back at camp pretty pleased with ourselves.  The camp team have warm water ready for us, for washing and hot tea and biccies.  Dinner is dhal-bhat (rice and dhal), chicken curry for the carnivores, lots of veggies and pineapple slices for desert. Life is good! My sleeping bag is toasty-warm and the self inflating mattress works a treat…… I just need to sort out the tent and master those dug out toilet thingies…..

xx Jules

ACCF's project coordinator Julie Weston has recently returned from a 15-day adventure in Nepal along with 10 ACCF Supporters. Jules Kept a travel diary of her experiences and has been kind enough to share her daily entries!

Stay tuned as more instalments are uploaded every week!

Sunday - 27 March 2011

It's Sunday and the ACCF team have descended into Nepal. After a moment's embarrassment, looking down at my feet to see that I was wearing a pair of white travel stockings with red sandals (in public!), I quickly let go of all expectations and gave myself over to the madness of Kathmandu city. It's like nowhere on earth that I've ever seen, a total assault on the senses....smells, sights, rubble, half finished buildings, masses of people, endlessly tooting cars, busses, trucks, motorbikes, mangy dogs and the odd cow or buffalo roaming the streets with an occasional monkey leaping over a fence here and there.

Julie (in front) and the ACCF Trekkers!

After dropping our gear at the hotel, we take a walk to Thamel Town. Just crossing the road is an adventure and quite frightening with cars and bikes tooting, no traffic lights, you just have to trust in the powers that be and launch yourself into the traffic. Amazingly there are no fatalities and after a few hours of grappling with the hawkers and stall holders, bargaining is almost second nature.

After a briefing with our World Expeditions tour guide ‘Bickash' we all venture out again for Nepali dinner with dancing and singing. We take our torches with us as there is not much night time lighting and the roads are a bit crumbly. At least there is not so much traffic after dinner, or are we just getting used to it already! When I finally drop into bed I'm exhausted, thrilled, expectant - can't sleep!

Monday - 28 March 2011

Opening the hotel windows at dawn is like looking through a peephole into a whole new magic world. There are a few people up and about and you can see them preparing for the day. There are rooftop gardens in view, a woman is hanging out her washing, someone is talking their mobile phone, there are some kids in the distance playing and prayer flags flap in the early morning breeze. I can't see too far ahead because it is misty or smoggy or both.

After breakfast we are taken on a tour of the city. Our tour guide for the day, Sri (as in Lanka), keeps us entertained with stories of intrigue about the massacre of the Royal Family some years ago. We hang on to every word, hungry for more. At one stage he breaks into song with a rendition of the Nepal folksong "Reston hir re re.....", a song of love that we hear everywhere in Nepal, and once it gets into your head there is no escape. Thanks Sri!

We tour the Boudhanath Stupa, a beautiful Buddhist shrine built in the 14^th Century. It is magnificent, surrounded by prayer wheels and adorned with masses of prayer flags. I feel humbled by its size and my petty worries seem to evaporate in the sacred atmosphere. I'm exhilarated by the experience of being here. I meet a lama who takes me to his temple and he invites me to light a butter lamp offering on the temple's main shrine. We say prayers for the long life of my Buddhist teacher, Sogyal Rinpoche and make a rice offering which is flung in the direction of the stupa from the temple's upper balcony. I feel like I've died and gone to heaven, or nirvana.......I've been zapped by Nepal's magic!

Sri takes us to a Tibetan Thanka painting workshop were we see the craftsmen and women painting with the tiniest of brushes. The work is so intricate it does my head in, the Thankas (Tibetan wall hangings) are exquisite and a few purchases are made.

We then head off to visit Pashupatinath Temple, is the oldest Hindu temple in Kathmandu which was built in the 17^th century. There is more magic here with heaps of ancient shrine buildings that honour Shiva, the Hindu god. It is so different to the Buddhist shrine but equally enthralling. There are monkeys running all over the place and Sadhus (holy men) who will pose for a picture (as long as you offer the right amount of rupees!). Trying to keep us all together is a challenge for Sri but somehow he manages it. We are on one side of the river, on the other is the actual Temple of Pashupatinath. Only Hindus can go in there, so we just look and take photos. We are amazed by cremations being performed right in front of our eyes. The dead are brought to this holy place and there are concrete platforms jutting out over the river, which are carefully laid out with wood and the cremation structures. It was a bit unsettling at first to see the cremations so close, but this is how it is in Nepal. The people have a very realistic view of death, it's not hidden or taboo and the dead are given a wonderful send off, with prayers, offerings and chanting by the family.

After the temples we hot-tail it back to our hotel for lunch and then to the Australian Embassy for afternoon tea and a meeting with the Ambassador to Nepal, Susan Grace. We are welcomed with lamingtons, ANZAC biscuits and a visit from the embassy dog, who is an absolute scene-stealer. The dog lovers amongst us get their doggy hit. We have been cautioned against touching any dogs in Nepal for fear of rabies so patting the well loved and looked after ‘Tassie' is a huge treat. The Ambassador gives us a very informative briefing about Nepal, and talks about the work ACCF does and how it fits into the big ‘health' picture. The Embassy has awarded some funding to the clinic we are involved with to undertake women's screening, so we are thrilled about this. Small drops in the ocean - but all helping to fight cervical cancer....one Nepali step at a time.

We are also urged to make sure we have registered on the travel smart website. OOPS! This results in some manic entering of people's details into the website when we get back to the hotel.

In the evening we go our separate ways and a few of us end up at a pizza restaurant - great pizza, great beer, great company. What will the next day hold!

An Aussie afternoon tea at the embassy.

Holy men.

Part 2 of Julie's travel blog will be be uploaded Thursday April 28th. Till then, if you can't wait any longer and are interested in experiencing the adventure for yourself - call or email Julie on 3177 1099 or julie.weston@accf.org.au to find out about the next ACCF trek!

 By Michelle Smith 

I recently attended a dinner with eight of my closest girlfriends; collectively in the past two years we have endured sixty four Brazilian waxes, twelve IPL treatments, 360 spray on tans, fifty-four eyebrow waxes and fifty-two Saturday nights suffering excruciating pain in six-inch high platforms.

In this time we have experimented in performing yoga in 40 degree heat; drinking nothing but cranberry juice for two weeks in a vain attempt to lose weight; cooking using only organic ingredients and ingested 2, 920 oral contraceptive pills.

I can hear the intellectually exclusive thirty-somethings dismissing this as simply a group of 20 something materialistic yuppies conforming to the Gen Y stereotype of ‘airhead’ and ‘bimbo’.

The fact of the matter is that all of these things are transferable to the lives of every woman.

Whether it is changing dirty nappies day in day out, or turning up to work every day at a workplace you fundamentally despise, or simply attending a weekly scolding session at your mother-in-law’s, disguised as a family dinner.

 ALL women, everyday, everywhere, endure the most tedious, exasperatingly annoying, painful, embarrassing and extraordinary tasks, yet, less than 50% of us will take the time, ONCE every two years, to visit our GP for our biennial pap smear.

Come on. Less than 50%? Girls, let’s get real.

And what is worse, from the eight girls present at our dinner, only two were up to date with their pap smear, two had previously had a pap smear test but not within the past four years and the remaining four had never had one.

Using my dinner as a clinical trial on the knowledge of cervical cancer within young Australian women, believe me, I was shocked at the results.

Cervical cancer is probably the most misconceived cancer in the western world; often confused with ovarian cancer or underrated compared to breast, cervical cancer is often forgotten about.

Cervical cancer is cancer of the cervix which is caused by HPVs that are transferrable through sexual contact, including but not exclusively intercourse.

One girlfriend said, ‘but I’ve been with John for four years so I know I am safe’. It is irrelevant if you have only had one sexual partner; HPVs have the ability to lie latent without indicating any signs of its presence.

Cervical cancer is a slow acting cancer; theoretically if you keep up to date with regular pap smears, cancer and pre cancers will be found at an early stage of development that can usually be treated efficiently, effectively and successfully.

Another girlfriend said, ‘I don’t believe in pap smears; last time I had a pap smear it came back with abnormal results but I didn’t have cervical cancer. Pap smears are just an excuse for hysterical doctors to create fear in young women’.

Wrong. While abnormal cells can be identified in pap smears that are not considered cancerous, it is vital that these cells are monitored to ensure they do not evolve into cancerous cells. Cervical cancer can be invasive, ruthless and deadly. However, if it is identified in its early stages, the severity of its effects are usually treatable.

I want every woman who is reading this blog to ask themselves; when was the last time I had a pap smear? If it was over two years ago, next time you visit your GP for a general check up ask them for a pap smear test.

It may be a little awkward, but on the bright side it will never be as awkward as:

1. Waking up the next morning to a guy whose name you can’t even remember
2. Calling your boss by the wrong name in an important business meeting
3. Getting food stuck in your teeth on a first date

We are women. We jump through a thousand hoops every single day and get ourselves into situations not even Houdini would think he could get out of. But some way, somehow, we manage to get ourselves through. A pap smear test should be the our top priority but the least of our worries. 

 By Bonnie Hislop 

At ACCF, along with the countless happy endings and success stories, there are also countless new stories of women, varying in age and background, who have been diagnosed with cervical cancer.

As this is the first ACCF blog entry, I would like to introduce its purpose. This blog aims to provide a space where women ranging from teens upwards can access articles with facts on cervical cancer, stories from those affected by the disease—either  directly or through friends and family—as well as news on ACCF supporters and the wonderful fundraising work they are doing.

This blog has come about because of a perceived need for a cervical cancer information resource that goes beyond simple facts and figures and provides encouragement, support and insight written by real women, for real women.

I met the most amazing woman today. 

Or rather, I discovered the blog of an amazing woman today whose story of hope encapsulates what it is to be human, and is one that without the power of online self-publishing, may have never been told. Hers is a story like so many others ACCF hears on a regular basis, of a woman who has tragically lost her battle with cervical cancer. Julie’s is unique however, in the fact that through her online diary, she can continue to share her journey firsthand, which, even with such a sad ending, is nothing short of awe inspiring and filled with hope and determination.

Julie Forward DeMay was diagnosed with early stage cervical cancer in January 2008, underwent surgery in February and remained in remission till the day after Christmas that year when she received the news the cancer had spread to other parts of her body and was at that point considered stage 4, metastic cancer.

She blogged about her daily life including undergoing treatments—both  alternative therapy and chemotherapy, as well as cherished past memories—from  January to August 2009, but the posts stop here. Julie died on August 10, 2009, 2 days after her 37^th birthday. In any other case, this tragic result would probably mean that the cancer had won the battle. That that marks the end of the journey.

Yet, today, as I discovered her blog, “Cell War Notebooks” which has now been compiled into a book of the same name and self published her mother Jane DeMay, I felt like a had befriended the most determined, witty, loving woman and someone who was still here, and not finished teaching.

Julie studied creative writing at university level, was a freelance photographer by profession, a wife and a mother to a young daughter named Luka. She writes about her day-to-day activities, and fondest memories, her descriptions of which unapologetically relate back to the ever-lurking reality of her deteriorating body yet refusal to give in.

On March 11 in a blog entry titled, “Hi my name is Cancer”, she writes, “Meeting new people these days is kind of difficult.  When someone wants to shake hands and say where are you from? and what do you do?  I want to say, Hi, my name is Cancer.  My middle name is Blog.  My last name is Green-Vegetables, with a hyphen.  Cancer is all consuming.  I try hard to let it not be.”

As a final word, something that resonated with me in Julie’s blog, were her mentions of the ways her friends gave her hope and support, and the strength to keep fighting. Sometimes it is difficult to know how you can help a friend who is fighting such an illness when it seems so big, but as displayed by Julie, the little things can make the biggest difference.

“People like angels keep sending me gift cards to the grocery and the wellness center. They clean my house. They send me encouraging emails. They leave flowers on my doorstep like tricky little pixies. These are my family and friends. My daughter made me a card for mother's day that has 18 hearts drawn on it and inside each heart, she wrote I love you.

This is my daughter. This community, this family and group of friends, this tiny daughter: they give me the strength to wait patiently. . . to keep walking. . . to live.”

Julie Forward DeMay, 11 May 2009.

Julie’s book is available for purchase at www.amazon.com and you can visit the original blog online at http://cellwarnotebooks.blogspot.com.

If you would like to share your story/ experience please email me at bonnie.hislop@accf.org.au.

Leave your comments below!