Making a Difference to the Patient Experience

There is something special about Cabrini. Keryn Connor knows this well, as Cabrini has been there for Keryn and her late husband Keith for the last 40 years. This was particularly true in 2019 when Keryn was told her breast cancer had come back for the third time. Shortly after this her husband Keith was diagnosed with a rare terminal cancer. As always, Cabrini was there for them every step of the way.

After Keith passed in 2022, Keryn decided she wanted to make a significant contribution to Cabrini to thank them for all they had done throughout both of their cancer journeys. Keryn wanted to make a difference to the experience that many cancer patients have during their treatment.

One procedure that Keryn experienced several times during her treatment was a surgical lumpectomy. To prepare for the surgery, a wire was inserted into her breast during a mammogram to locate the tumour during surgery. “As you can imagine, this is unpleasant and uncomfortable to say the least”, Keryn shared.

Earlier this year Keryn’s Cabrini Breast Surgeon, Dr Jennifer Senior OAM told her about the new ‘Sirius Pintuition Breast Navigation’ system that could improve this experience for breast cancer patients.

Thanks to Keryn’s support, Cabrini was able to purchase the ‘Pintuition’ equipment. Breast cancer patients can now have a magnetic seed placed where their breast tumour is under ultrasound guidance, which is a much more comfortable experience than the previous method that Keryn experienced. Patients then undergo surgical removal of the tumour and the ‘Pintuition’ unit detects the location of the seed. The surrounding tumour tissue can then be removed with less incision, minimising loss of healthy tissue and scarring to the patient.

A recent Cabrini breast cancer patient confirmed just how much better the experience was with ‘Pintuition’: “I can’t thank supporters like Keryn enough, they really understand the difference that something like this can make in a patient's cancer journey.”

Keryn shared “I have donated in the past to the Cabrini Foundation but contributing to a specific machine that I know personally is reducing the trauma associated with breast surgery, gave me a very special satisfaction."

Keryn noted that “I did not expect any recognition when making this donation, it was just to thank the hospital and staff for all their care. I will continue to contribute when I can to specific requests as I found this very rewarding. I urge others to try it.”

We are incredibly grateful for the difference that Keryn has made to breast cancer patients now and into the future.

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