About Hannah’s Chance Foundation
Hannah’s Chance Foundation aims to raise valuable funds for medical research into rare types of cancer, called sarcomas. There are various types of sarcomas, all of which are very aggressive and almost 50 per cent of sufferers do not survive.
The establishment of Hannah’s Chance Foundation was the dream of Hannah Ciobo, daughter of Australian swimming great Tracey Wickham and Robert Ciobo, and Hannah’s husband Tom O’Driscoll. Hannah fought very bravely against the rare synovial sarcoma for three years until she lost her battle on 2 October 2007, aged 19. Tom suffered from Ewings sarcoma, but fortunately is now in remission.
Hannah and Tom felt it was extremely important to raise both awareness of sarcomas and the funds needed to further research into this under-resourced area.
Due to the limited amount of research currently being undertaken on sarcomas there is every possibility that, with the community’s support, Hannah’s Chance Foundation can make a significant difference to the lives of thousands of sarcoma sufferers in Australia and around the world.
In Hannah’s own words…..”Being in hospital during my treatment I found it amazing how many children and some adults that have very similar things to me….. the worst thing is seeing a child in hospital receiving chemo and not knowing if the medicine they are getting is going to work.
Please help make a difference to these very special people’s lives, give them a chance, and help give them their lives back.”
Hannah’s family have set themselves a target to try to raise $1 million for the foundation by the first anniversary of Hannah’s passing. If you would like to contribute to this important cause, donations can be made by clicking here.
About sarcomas
Sarcoma is a cancer of the connective or supportive tissue, which includes bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels, and soft tissue. More than one thousand people in Australia are diagnosed with sarcoma every year.
Sarcomas are given a number of different names, based on the type of tissue from which they arise. For example, osteosarcoma arises from bone, chondrosarcoma from cartilage, and leiomyosarcoma from smooth muscle. Synovial sarcomas affect soft tissue such as muscles and ligaments.
Secretary of the Australian Sarcoma Group and Hannah’s surgeon, Dr Peter Steadman, lauded Hannah’s courage and vision and her family’s commitment to create real and continuing value from Hannah’s life and struggle with cancer. .
Encouraging everyone to contribute to the Hannah’s Chance Foundation, Dr Steadman explained:
“Sarcoma is the most aggressive primary cancer with an overall 50 per cent mortality or survival rate at five years.
“Sarcoma is rare by the prolific standards of the most common cancers including breast and prostate and hence has trouble attracting research funding from governments to find a cure with such small patient numbers.
“We understand how to treat sarcoma with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which has improved survival considerably from 20 per cent to 50 per cent. However, this has not progressed over more than the last decade due to a lack of high level research. Sarcoma is still not a well understood cancer. Due to the lack of research funding significant advances in sarcoma care to improve outcome and survival are not being made,” Dr Steadman said.
“Research into any sarcoma will benefit all sarcoma patients as there are significant similarities between all types of sarcomas.
“On a personal note, Hannah was a pleasure to treat and I found her exceptionally brave throughout her illness. She remained calm despite facing adversity. She was a stable influence on all around her despite her severe illness. She had always hoped to be a model and despite her progressive decline, never gave up on that dream.
“From my experience cancer has the capacity to bring out great emotional strength in people as they face the greatest challenge of their life, certainly Hannah was no different, however exceptional in her maturity and calmness,” Dr Steadman said.
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