LOCAL HERO
BIANCA ARMYTAGE
Facing a cancer diagnosis when living in the country comes with its own unique set of challenges. “Treatment isn’t just up the road and often entails lots of travel and many nights away from home,” says Bianca Armytage, 42, who provides vital financial and emotional support for local cancer patients in her role as patient liaison officer for the Deniliquin, NSW, branch of Can Assist. “The challenges that some people have to face and overcome is nothing short of amazing – it’s so rewarding to be able to ease some of the stress they’re facing.”
Bianca has firsthand experience of what her clients are going through, having faced her own breast cancer diagnosis at just 33. “With a very strong family history of breast cancer, it wasn’t a shock,” she admits. “My mother was diagnosed at age 37 and my grandmother at 34 – both lost their lives to the disease not long after diagnosis.”
While the mum-of-two hoped a preventative mastectomy would “get it before it got me”, the cancer had other plans. “Just a week after booking in to see the surgeon, I found a lump,” Bianca says. “The next 12 months involved chemotherapy
