A ping echoes through Patricia Curnow’s Brisbane home, signalling the arrival of an email from a total stranger.
The 68-year-old grandmother goes to her computer and clicks into the missive from a woman who lives almost 2,000km away.
What’s written there almost brings her to tears.
READ MORE: Killer hidden in Sydney mum’s car selfie was spotted by a hairdresser
“She knows what I’m going through,” Patricia tells 9honey. “It’s great to see someone who’s come through the tunnel and out the other side.”
Though they’ve never met, Patricia and June are connected by one terrible experience; they were both diagnosed with a cancer so rare most people, including doctors, have never heard of it.
“When people ask me what sort of cancer I have, I just say ovarian, because they look at you funny when you say fallopian,” Patricia confesses.
She was diagnosed in January 2024 after two weeks of unusual bowel symptoms, which she initially put down to indulging too much over Christmas.
It became clear “something was really wrong” on a New Year camping trip, so she booked an appointment with her GP as soon as she got home.
Thankfully, the doctor took her vague symptoms seriously and ordered a bunch of tests.
An abdominal CT scan revealed she was right to be worried.
First she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer but a few days and an appointment with a gynaecological oncologist later, Patricia learned the cancer had started in her fallopian tubes.
She didn’t have ovarian cancer; she had Stage 3 fallopian tube cancer. Patricia had never heard of it in her life.
“I had a cousin with ovarian cancer, and my mother had breast cancer, but fallopian I had no idea about,” she says.
“It was all very scary and a shock for the whole family.”
READ MORE: ‘When we saw the bill, we freaked out’: Mum’s horror after health battle
One of the rarest gynaecological cancers in the world, fallopian tube cancer most commonly occurs in women who have gone through menopause and it can spread to other organs, like the ovaries and bowel.
It’s also considered a rare or less common (RLC) cancer, which are associated with a heap of inequities when it comes to treatment options and support services.
Though ‘rare’ is in the name, RLC cancers account for one in four cancer diagnoses in Australia and over a third of all cancer deaths.
“In Australia approximately 40,000 people are diagnosed with a rare or less common cancer every year. This is no small issue,” RCA’s CEO Christine Cockburn tells 9honey.
“Despite these high numbers, people with rare cancers simply don’t receive the same level of support, or have access to the same treatment options, as those with more common cancers, and they pay for that inequity with their lives.”
Patricia didn’t know what to expect when she was diagnosed and started to deteriorate quickly, forcing her oncologist to schedule surgery just a few weeks after the cancer was found.
“We had to operate, not wait around for chemo,” she says.
The operation to remove diseased tissue from her pelvis lasted over seven hours.
When Patricia was finally wheeled out of the operating room, she was taken straight to intensive care.
That’s where she stayed for two days, followed by nine more days in hospital before she was sent home to recover and prepare herself to start chemotherapy.
READ MORE: Doctor’s mistake with Mia’s diagnosis wasn’t discovered for 10 years
“They wanted to go in quick with the chemo and kill it off straight away, in case there were any rogue [cancer] cells,” Patricia says.
Though her family and medical team were hugely supportive, there wasn’t a soul in her life who understood what she was going through.
Most people didn’t even know her kind of cancer existed.
Around the time she started chemo, a nurse offered to connect her with Rare Cancers Australia (RCA) for support. Someone emailed Patricia the very next day.
The history of cancer diagnoses in the British royal family
RCA offers patients with RLC cancers emotional support, financial assistance, and a sense of community in the face of cancer inequities, but what they did for Patricia changed her life.
And it all began with that first email from June landing in her inbox.
“She’d finished all her treatment […] and she knows what I’m going through,” Patricia says.
“It was wonderful. I really thank Rare Cancers Australia for doing that for me.”
READ MORE: A disturbing discovery in Vivienne’s underwear changed her life
A fallopian tube cancer survivor herself, June offered Patricia comfort and guidance after weeks of isolation and has been her constant confidante ever since.
The two women email all the time, sharing cancer updates and tips on managing chemo hair loss in between photos of their grandkids.
When Patricia went into remission after her fourth round of chemo, she told June right away.
She’s still undergoing cancer treatment and there’s a long road ahead, but June’s emails have given her hope for the future and that’s what RCA wants for every Aussie diagnosed with RLC cancer.
“Our Vision is for there to be an equity in experience and outcomes for all people living with cancer in Australia. This is our north star,” Cockburn says.
“And we won’t stop reaching for it until the story and the system changes.”
A recent Senate Inquiry called out the inequities RLC cancer patients face and proposed over 40 recommendations in the hopes as a nation, we can do better by patients like June and Patricia.
Because for every Aussie like them who survived or is in remission, there’s too many who don’t make it.
Regardless of their diversity, people with rare and less common cancers face a set of similar challenges. Learn more and donate here.