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“My joints hurt. My bones ached.”

Kristy was diagnosed with Stage 2 HER2-positive breast cancer a day before her 39^th birthday. She’d gone to have a firm area in her breast checked, thinking it was nothing. But it wasn’t.

As Kristy discovered, diagnosis is the only the start of what can be a gruelling experience.

She had multiple cycles of aggressive chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy, before starting on Herceptin, an immune targeted therapy. All of this whilst trying to remain a devoted mum to five-year-old Eden.

Before treatment Kristy was young, fit and strong. Yet, soon after starting cancer treatment, Kristy struggled:

“My joints hurt. My bones ached. I'd shuffle to the bathroom in the middle of the night like I was 80 years old. I didn’t know my body any more. That’s why it would be amazing to have options that can get rid of the cancer without smashing your body,” she says.

Immunotherapies do offer a gentler cure – for some patients. Research is now needed to identify them at the point of diagnosis and that’s where tools like Spatial Profiling come in.

Spatial Profiling enables researchers and clinicians to examine a cancer tumour in context and unprecedented detail. With your support, PA Researcher Associate Professor Arutha is leading a Spatial Profiling project that has the potential to transform the kind of treatment people like Kristy have.

By making a special Christmas gift today, you could fund cutting-edge projects like Associate Professor Arutha's and give hope to cancer patients that gentler treatments are on the horizon.