Head & Neck Cancer Patient & Family

19/04/2026

The Power of the Patient Perspective - Part 1.
🩺 Dr Ben Bravery
Author, The Patient Doctor.
☢️ Julie McCrossin AM
Journalist & Cancer Survivor.

The doctor-patient relationship is central to healing. What is the impact of the digital transformation on this relationship? What is the hope and the danger?

Digital Health Festival
20-21 May 2026
Melbourne MCEC
https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/digital-health-festival/index.stm








https://youtu.be/i9wbW2_hQQ8

The Power of the Patient Perspective - Dr Ben Bravery and Julie McCrossin AM - part 1

18/04/2026

☢️ A radiation therapy machine or LINAC and a Medical Physicist in crochet! How marvellous! 🧶 I love educational models of all kinds!
World Radiotherapy Awareness Day

18/04/2026

🟣 April is Oesophageal Cancer Awareness Month

Oesophageal cancer develops in the lining of the oesophagus and can occur anywhere along it. When identified early, there are more treatment options available and greater opportunities to plan care.

Raising awareness of symptoms and encouraging timely assessment can make a meaningful difference for people affected by oesophageal cancer.

Learn more about how radiation therapy can treat oesophageal cancer on the Targeting Cancer website >> https://www.targetingcancer.com.au/treatment-by-cancer-type/oesophageal-cancer/

17/04/2026

13/04/2026

“We need to move from expert opinion to science based, evidence-based work.”

Surgical News profiles Professor Jonathan Clark, FRACS, AM—a world leading head and neck surgeon transforming reconstructive care. As the 2024 John Loewenthal Project Grant recipient, he is integrating virtual surgical planning and 3D printing directly into hospitals, improving accuracy, reducing costs, and reshaping post cancer recovery. His pioneering work is setting new national benchmarks in reconstructive innovation.

Read more in Surgical News: https://www.surgeons.org/surgicalnews/Articles/2026/Volume-27/Issue-1/Jonathan-Clark

12/04/2026

Throat Cancer & HPV booklet for patients. Voice over with images.

This booklet, Throat Cancer & HPV, was developed by the Health Behaviour Research Centre, University College London and Resonant agency, and updated by The U...

11/04/2026

☢️ ✅ Yesterday it was 13 years since I was diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer. It took a few days to confirm it was stage 4, HPV-related cancer in my tonsils, back of tongue and side of throat.

The photo of me in the little hat was my first day back at work after treatment and initial recovery. After 33 sessions of radiation therapy and weekly chemotherapy I had lost over 20kg, lost speech and swallowing for several months and lost quite a lot of my hair. Hence the little hat.

Thanks to my multidisciplinary team at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney and GenesisCare for nurturing me back to life after the brutal but life-saving treatment. Thanks to ENT surgeon Dr Richard Gallagher who diagnosed me and cared for me for years of recovery. Thanks to the radiation oncologists who involved me as an ambassador in the Targeting Cancer Campaign early in my recovery. This helped me psychologically by giving meaning and purpose to my suffering.

My wife Melissa, our children and close friends were crucial.

I am so grateful to be alive. I remember how vulnerable and fragile I felt returning to work that day in that red hat. I was working for Qantas interviewing people about travel for inflight entertainment. I’d worked hard with dedicated speech pathologists to get my voice back but I wasn’t sure how my voice would perform with a full day in a studio.

If you’re facing cancer today my thoughts are with you. We have the best survival rates in the world. Hang in and try to do what the doctors, nurses and allied heath peeps ask you to do. 🙋🏻‍♀️🌼☢️ 🩺

10/04/2026

Medical and Scientific: Vax can protect men.

“New international research from Japan suggests HPV vaccines benefit men as well as women, finding that vaccinated men have a lower risk of several HPV-related cancers, including oesophageal, head and neck, a**l, and pe**le cancers, based on a large study comparing over 615,000 vaccinated men with nearly 2.3 million unvaccinated men. The findings support calls for vaccination programs to target both sexes, rather than focusing primarily on women.” Cancer Council. Cancer in the News.

Herald Sun, 10/04/2026, Page 10; The Mercury, 10/04/2026, Page 7; The Daily Telegraph, 10/04/2026, Page 19.

09/04/2026

PIONEERS improving bone reconstruction outcomes for cancer patients.

Innovative, compassionate work for head and neck cancer patients. Thank you! 🙏

Chris O'Brien Lifehouse https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2026/03/06/pioneers-improving-bone-reconstruction-outcomes-for-cancer-patie.html

04/04/2026

A Patient’s Perspective.

Head and Neck Cancer Survivor, Jeff White, shares his patient story at ASTRO's 2026 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancers Symposium.

03/04/2026

☢️ Proton Radiation Therapy for Head and Neck | My Experience.

“Tom shares his experience receiving radiation therapy for head and neck cancer at Penn's Roberts Proton Therapy Center. “Get an inside look at the process from preparation and making the screening helmet to actually receiving radiation therapy.” Penn Medicine 2014

Penn Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Health System

Tom shares his experience receiving radiation therapy for head and neck cancer at Penn's Roberts Proton Therapy Center. Get an inside look at the process fro...

31/03/2026

👁️ 👁️ Ocular (eye) melanoma.
Last week I met a man wearing an eye patch who had recently had an eye removed after a routine eye test. 😎

For years Cancer Councils across Australia have recommended and sold sunglasses 😎 & encouraged us to protect our eyes 👀.

It has never occurred to me you could get melanoma in your eye. Yet I know we have the highest rate of skin cancers and melanoma in the world. I know sunlight goes into my eyes. How could it be that I didn’t realise how important it is to wear good quality sunglasses? 🕶️ 🤦🏻‍♀️

Especially because I have had eye surgery twice to remove a pterygium:https://www.optometry.org.au/wp-content/uploads/GVFL/Brochure_PDFs/Pterygium-A4-single-sided-2019-Redesign.pdf

Sharing this belated insight so people who are more sensible than me can remember to wear shades! 👒 🕶️ 🏖️