Exclusive: When Carly Magnisalis was told she had lung cancer, she initially thought the doctor had mixed up her scan results with another patients’.
The 43-year-old mother of four has never smoked.
“I was like ‘it’s wrong – it’s not my scan. How can this be possible?” she told 9news.com.au.
”I thought most people who had lung cancer had to have smoked. That is just so wrong. I know now that all you need to get lung cancer is a set of lungs,” she said.
Now Magnisalis is backing a new push for a national lung cancer screening scheme.
However, it needs more funding to get it started, with campaigners making a fresh call for action ahead of the federal budget in May.
Magnisalis, from Newcastle, NSW, didn’t have any of the usual symptoms of the disease, such as a cough or shortness of breath.
But two years ago the super fit mum started suffering from pain in her hips, knees and ankles when she ran her daily 10 kilometres.
Initially she thought it was part of “getting old”.
But tests at her GP came back clear.
It was an unusual symptom which finally led to her diagnosis.
“I had pressure underneath my nails and my nails had started to change shape,” she said.
That’s a subtle but key sign of lung cancer, along with a ‘clubbing’ of the fingers due to a lack of oxygen.
Her GP sent her for a chest X-ray which led to her shock diagnosis.
She had an eight centimetre tumour in her left lung and there were cancer signs in her right too.
“It was literally like my world had just caved in. It was just darkness,” she said.
Magnisalis, who is mum to Coen, 21, Nicholas, 16, Ruby, 15, Elise eight, had to tell them she was sick.
A year ago she her left lung removed at the Royal North Shore Private Hospital in Sydney, leaving a 25cm scar down her back.
It won’t cure her but it could help her live longer.
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She’s on a targeted therapy drug called Osimertinib and has returned to her job at an Indigenous pre-school.
Oncologists have not told her prognosis but she knows the numbers: She has Australia’s biggest cancer killer.
“If you look at the statistics I’ve only got a 20 per cent chance,” she said.
Magnisalis wants to remind politicians that the 12,000 Aussies a year diagnosed with lung cancer deserve help, whether they have smoked or not.
One in three women and one in ten men diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked, the Lung Foundation said – but she said that shouldn’t make a difference.
“I used to say, ‘I’m Carly I’ve got lung cancer but I’ve never smoked… that’s a moot point- no one deserves to have cancer.
“You don’t say to someone who has heart conditions, ‘oh have you been eating fatty foods?”
How lung cancer screening would work
Screening schemes exist to aid the diagnosis of cervical, breast and bowel cancers.
Independent government advisors recommend a similar screening cheme for lung cancer.
Helping people stop smoking would be included in the scheme, which would screen at-risk Aussies aged 50-70.
‘Lung cancer can’t wait’
Lung Foundation Australia CEO Mark Brooke said screening, costing $300m over the next five years, would help bring lung cancer in line with other cancer testing.
“People’s lung cancer can’t wait,” he said.
“We’ve called on the Albanese government and Health Minister Mark Butler to fast track it now.
“There are very few policies that could save as many lives.”
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A Federal Government spokesman said: “The Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) recently supported a targeted lung cancer screening program for those most at risk, including smokers and former smokers.
“The Government appreciates the work done to date by Cancer Australia and the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) in considering a lung cancer screening program and is considering the advice and recommendations.”
