In summary:
A donation of US$20 million will enable the construction of a national clinical trials center in Sydney to treat cancer patients.
Philanthropist Kay Van Norton Poche died in June from complications of a rare cancer.
The money is intended to help give Australians the same access to clinical trials as in the USA.
The path forward seemed bleak when Rebecca Talbot was diagnosed with a rare form of thyroid cancer in 2020 that was unresponsive to conventional treatments.
“Chemo was not an option for me, radiation was not an option for me,” said the 43-year-old woman from the Gold Coast.
Facing a future her doctors had no plan for, she connected with others in the same situation through a Facebook group and was referred to a doctor in Sydney who was able to enroll her in a life-saving clinical trial.
“Without the clinical trial, I would have had to undergo many more operations and the recovery afterwards would of course have affected my quality of life,” she said.
“Otherwise I simply wouldn’t be here now.”
Nearly four years later, Ms. Talbot is still ill, but her cancer has stabilized and the trial continues to give her what all cancer patients want – more time.
She is one of the lucky few who will be able to take part in a clinical trial in Australia, where access to new and experimental drugs is often limited.
A $20 million donation from philanthropist Kay Van Norton Poche, who died in June from complications of a rare cancer, will now significantly improve Australian patients’ access to clinical trials.
In a recorded video message before her death, Ms. Van Norton Poche expressed her hope that “expertise and research can come together to provide the best care to those in need around the world.”
“We are fighting the good fight with you,” she said.
“Take that, go out there and let’s kill it.”
Clinical trial centre opens in Sydney
Ms Van Norton Poche’s farewell donation will enable a national clinical trials centre to be established in Sydney as part of a partnership between the Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD) and the world-renowned Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York.
This means that Australians will have the same access to clinical trials as US citizens, with a focus on equitable access for underprivileged and regional patients.
NSLHD research chair Bruce Robinson will lead the project and said it had traditionally been difficult to bring clinical trials to Australia.
“Many large U.S. pharmaceutical companies like to conduct their trials in their home market,” he said.
“This partnership is of enormous importance for cancer patients. It gives them access to studies that can prolong or even save their lives.
“It also alleviates their frustration when they see that there are treatment options for them in other parts of the world that they don’t have access to.”
At the new Australian study site called North Sydney Trials and Research Van Norton Poche (NORTH STAR VNP), Australian patients are already taking part in three US studies to treat breast cancer, stomach cancer and laryngeal cancer.
Hope for a better future
Ms. Talbot is aware that the drug that keeps her cancer at bay may not do so forever.
Access to further clinical trials gives her hope.
“I don’t know where my journey will take me, when that change will happen and when I’ll need another option,” she said.
“I’m still a mother of three children, I’m married to my husband and, you know, I just have so much more to do.”
Mrs Van Norton Poche has been described as “one of Australia’s most generous women”.
She and her husband Greg Poche made their fortune in 2003 by selling the delivery company StarTrack.
In 2019, she was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of Australia and received honorary doctorates from several universities.
