Mr Stephen Flannery, Managing Director of Fugen Constructions, describes what to expect, and the importance of supporting Breast Cancer Trials research through the Cole Classic.

“So, the name of the team, ‘The Rack Pack’ came up through Rachel and we decided to do a breast cancer aligned charity again this year, after 2010, we had the ‘Builders Love Boobs’ event.”

“So, it’s been 10 years since my wife passed away. So, the family decided we’d just do another swim for Breast Cancer Trials. So, we have this band of team members on this email list from people who have swam since day dot.”

“And we just send an email out in December some time saying that this is the charity that we’ve picked, and we set up the websites, and Nicole, my PA, runs most of that.”

“And after talking to some of the ladies in the office, because I thought I’d put it out to them, because that’s who are primarily affected, they said, everyone talks about post-treatment but what about actually trying to prevent it?”

“So, I thought, fantastic, and that’s when I got onto Professor Fran Boyle, and the Breast Cancer Trials organisation came up. So, the focus for me is why not try to stop it before you have to look after it? And we just thought, why not have a crack this year, and see how much we raise?”

Pictured: Stephen Flannery with Staff at Fugen Constructions.

“We’re currently at $36,000 hopefully we make $50,000, so for the whole swim team for over the 15 or 16 years that we’ve participated, it’ll be roughly $500,000 that we have raise for the various 16 or 17 odd charities that we’ve done. It doesn’t matter how much you raise or what you do, you just make a difference.”

“I was lucky that when I started, I had a really good passion for it, and it was an emotional thing for me. And every year has been a bit different for different people, but once you build the momentum, and everyone knows that in the first week in February, the Fugen team is going to be doing something, people get excited.”

“So, it just seems to be that people have just got this connection with really charitable people, and they’ve got really good sponsors. So, you know, they say Fugen raised all this money, but it’s 60 individuals that have raised a minimum of $200 each. So, they’ve got their parents, their best friends, there’s been 12-year-olds participating who have raised $200, and those girls now are now 24 and still raising money from their friends.”

Mr Reece Moffat, Construction Manager at Fugen Constructions, discusses the importance of supporting Breast Cancer Trials research.

“My name is Reece Moffat. I work at Fugen Constructions as a Construction Manager. I think most people are affected by breast cancer in some shape or form. I’ve got a lot of loved ones that have been directly affected by breast cancer, so it means a lot to raise money for Breast Cancer Trials this year.”

Pictured: Reece with his Wife and their Baby.

“So, it’s a really rewarding time raising money, no matter what the fundraiser is, but especially for Breast Cancer Trials. Knowing that we’ve raised such a significant amount and how far that money will go really does give you a sense of achievement and knowing so many people affected by breast cancer directly or indirectly, it really does make you feel good about yourself to be a part of this.”

“This year will be my 11th consecutive year swimming in the Cole Classic and being part of Fugen Swim Team. Fugen Constructions build a swimming team every year. It begins within the company, so we’ll have the young cadets, all the way through to the senior project managers and site managers.”

“Everyone is welcome to compete, and then it’s spread out to their partners, their friends, and their family as well. So, my partner has been doing it for six years and she loves it. It’s a day in our calendar every year that we don’t miss.”

“Training is up to the individual. So, some people train when they get there on the day. Other people swim all year round, most of them start concentrating in January, but the admin of it starts probably in December. We start ordering shirts, sending emails out, and then Nicole registers the team in the Cole Classic and sets up the charity page as well,” said Stephen.

“And then the emails just start going out. I start my fundraising usually about the first or second week in January when everyone starts coming back. And then the team just grows from that with the weekly or fortnightly emails. And then the week leading up to the Cole Classic is probably the more intense part about organising, including the barbecues, tents, and food.”

“We feed probably between 100 and 120 people. By the time you have 50 or 60 in your swim team, then you’ve got people that don’t want to swim but want to support us. We’ve got parents there watching their kids, so it just varies about how many we have.”

“So, in the past three months I’ve ramped up the training for the Cole Classic. We are part of the back of the pack in the event. So, the less serious side of things, but we still like to stretch our arms and kick our legs before the event to get into the swing of things and not go in too cold”, said Reece.

We spoke with Race Director, John Thompson, about what is involved on the morning of the Cole Classic.

“The day of the Cole Classic starts early. I’d say some of the crew would start arriving here at around about 4:00 AM. All of the surf lifesaving, the IRBs, and the rescue boats are prepped the day before, but then the team is down here super early in the morning” said John.

“We’re moving stuff around, inflating about 15 of the massive marker buoys that we have out on the course. We’re checking anchors, we’re putting signs up, we’re moving all the registration packs downstairs for all the swimmers to pick up, which is about 1,100 T-shirts and 300 volunteer T-shirts. We’re also setting up the water safety components, so the swimmer support, and the rash vests that all water safety crew use.”

“6:30 AM is showtime, that’s when the registration opens up, the swimmers will start filing in. It is really action-stations.”

“So, the morning of the Cole Classic is great. There’s a buzz in the air and we all look forward to the day. So personally, what I get out of the Cole Classic is a real sense of achievement,” said Reece.

“The physical build up to it and the swim is great, there’s a rush of endorphins afterwards as you try to get the best out of your body, but beyond that, it’s bigger than that. We’re raising money for Breast Cancer Trials this year, and it’s just great knowing that people are willing to support the fundraising that you do leading up to the event.”

“As well as that, after the swim we all get together, we reflect on the swim and what we’re raising money for. We have a bacon and egg sandwich and just get together as a swimming team.”

“So, we do a bit of a roster, but we normally get there about 6:30 AM and we set up on the Manly Ferry side. We’re just directly behind the surf club. So we set up our tent, barbecues, everything. We go get our tags, and then we come back to the tent, and that’s about it,” said Stephen.

“And then it’s just like herding cats. We make a big announcement, so everyone comes, collects their t-shirts, and there’s swimmers that we provide for everyone. And then we then go to the surf club, leave our clothes there. And then, as I say, we do the walk of shame between Manly Surf Club around to Shelley Beach. And then most years, except for two or three, we’ll swim back into Manly.”

Pictured: The ‘Walk of Shame’ from the Fugen Tent to Manly Beach.

“And then we go from Manly. We all finish at different times depending on what wave we’re in and how everyone goes, and then we all make our way back to the tent and there’s a barbecue on for everyone.”

“So, we have a great barbecue, the banter’s going everywhere and then there has been known to be swapping of tags. So, one of our slowest swimmers, Flitty, The White Whale, he calls himself, swapped with me one time and a blind 90-year-old beat me home in a one kilometer swim. But anyway, that’s all part of the banter.”

“We won’t admit it, but there is definitely some competition in the office. There’s some young blood in the office now that are sort of chomping at everyone’s feet to try to get the fastest swim. A few years ago, one of the site managers actually swapped the race tag, the clip that goes on the swimmer, with someone else who was faster,” said Reece.

“So, when he crossed the finish line, it said that he finished about 10 minutes quicker than he actually did. So, there’s, there’s a bit of banner there. There’s a lot of fun that goes on.”

We spoke to members of the Fugen Constructions team on race day to hear their thoughts about the event and raising funds for breast cancer research.

“I’m really excited, this is I think my 15^th year of doing the Cole Classic with Fugen so really excited to be here today.”

“I’m feeling pretty good, excited, looking forward to it. It’s my first one, so I think it’ll be good. Everyone’s in a pretty good mood and I think based on a few years ago, I hear some of the boys talking about the barbeque, so it seems like a great day.”

“I’m feeling pretty good. High spirits. We’ve got a big team this year, which is good, everyone sticks together.”

“So, my training plan has involved swimming at the club on a Saturday morning, and the odd swim on Sunday morning. If I make it out of the water at the other end, I’ve done well.”

“We’re feeling great! We’re excited and it’s great to be here with a big bunch of people. I’m hoping to finish under 20 minutes if we can if all goes well.”

“My training has pretty much been having some wine over Christmas and a little ocean swimming. That’s been the training. So, we’ll be right to do it, but we haven’t busted a gut to do it because we can both swim, so we’re fine. We’re just here to have a bit of fun. We’re not really worried about the time.”

“My favourite part of the day is the community. It’s just marvelous. You get out of the water and there’s people cheering you on and then this marvelous barbecue that we have at the end here, catching up with people that we saw last year, so that’s my favourite part of the day.”

“I think it’s a fabulous fun time! I’m an okay swimmer, I’m not a really good swimmer, but even for those of us who aren’t fantastic swimmers, it’s a fabulous day, really, really good fun.”

The Fugen Rack Pack raised an incredible $78,907 for BCT, a testament to the commitment, generosity, and comradery of their community. We cannot thank them enough for their tremendous effort and the impact they will have on the lives of those facing breast cancer.

Pictured: The Fugen ‘Rack Pack’ Team.

“My name’s Megan from Breast Cancer Trials. For those of you who don’t know, Breast Cancer Trials is one of the leading breast cancer research organisations in the world. We’re dedicated to finding new treatments and better research strategies to save lives from breast cancer.”

“Over the past 20 years, deaths from breast cancer have actually fallen 30 percent and that’s because of our research program. But unfortunately, we still have a long way to go. Today, 57 people will be told they have breast cancer.”

“That’s why every single one of you is so crucial and important. The $70,000 you have raised for Breast Cancer Trials is going to make a huge difference to our research program, so from the bottom of our hearts, thank you all, your friends and family, and everyone who donated. This is a fantastic effort.”

Our life-saving breast cancer research is only possible thanks to the continued generosity of our supporters. Please help continue this vital work by making a donation today.  Find out more about how you can become a Pink Champion!

How did you find out that you had breast cancer?

“So, I’d found a lump, but I put it down to being a cyst because there was an FM radio station that used to talk about checking your breasts on the first day of the month. This was after Kylie Minogue was diagnosed.”

“And every so often I would do it, and I found a lump. But then I googled it, which was a mistake now, in hindsight. And it said that it’s most likely a cyst, and to check it at different times of the month because of hormonal changes in your body.”

“So, I checked it a couple of weeks later and I couldn’t feel it. So, I just put it down to being a cyst and ignored it. Then over time, it started sticking around a bit more. It wasn’t coming and going like it used to. And because I’d made it a cyst in my brain, I didn’t worry about it. But then I felt my lymph node in my armpit, and thought that’s a bit weird, but I’m feeling great at the moment, maybe I just have a mild infection. It’s nothing, it’ll go away.”

“And it kept growing, and I developed this cough. Which later turned out to be nothing. But I thought a cough and inflamed lymph node must be something, so I thought I should go to the GP. Went to the GP and I explained how I had a cough and inflamed lymph node, but also this lump that used to come and go, but it’s sticking around.”

“My GP had a feel and said that she thought the lump and the lymph node might be connected. And that was the first inkling that there might be an issue. And then she gave me a referral for a mammogram and an ultrasound, and I had that done on Christmas Eve because I just wanted to get it out of the way, because I was convinced that it wasn’t going to be anything anyway.”

“So, half an hour after I got home, I got a phone call from my GP apologizing for breaking the news over the phone, but basically saying it’s bad news. It’s a tumor, and I just remember the white noise rushing past my ears. I was just thinking, ‘what?”

“I remember asking if it was benign or malignant, and I was trying to kind of try and steer it down the ‘it’s nothing major’ path. But she said, “I think it’s malignant and you’re going to have a pretty crappy year next year.”

“And I knew it had spread because I had felt the swollen lymph node. That was the reason why I was kind of extra worried because I thought it was spreading, and I knew the lump had been there for a while, because I’d ignored it, knowing it was there. So, it took two weeks to see a specialist, because it was a Christmas break.”

“And the two people I thought of straight away were Jane McGrath and Belinda Emmett, who were famous Australians who had died from breast cancer.”

“And then I had to give myself a mental slap and go how many people get diagnosed a year around the world? It must be in the millions. And they’re all fine, but you’re thinking about the two people who died, and that made the news because they died. I’ve got to calm down. I know the Australian health system is good, and we found it, so let’s just deal with it.”

What was your biggest fear during this time?

“The first thing that went through my head was, I’m going to die. Because I thought it had been around for a while, so it had some time to spread, and it might be terminal.”

“I’m a carer for my parents, and I’d just bought an eight-week-old puppy, two weeks prior to that. And I just kept thinking I’m not going to see my puppy grow up. Who’s going to look after my parents? And all sorts of things, it was very melodramatic now looking back. But it was all going on inside my brain.”

“I didn’t show any emotions externally because I didn’t want to alert people to it for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted them to have a good Christmas and New Year’s because who knew what was coming and they might have bad ones for the next few years, if not forever, if I died or something.”

“So, I thought let them at least sleep for as long as I can let them have peace. But once I have to deal with it, they’ll know. The other reason being if someone said to you, I’ve got cancer, you’ll be saying how bad is it? What’s the treatment plan? Will you be okay? And I had no information.”

“And so, I thought rather than all of us sitting there not knowing, let me just deal with it and I can then I can work on my communication plan to all my stakeholders about what comes next.”

How did your family react when you told them?

“They were devastated. My poor family. My brother, who’s a GP, came down from Brisbane, because I live in Melbourne, and he helped me break the news to my parents. And we broke it to them on the Saturday, and I was having surgery on the Monday. And, in hindsight, I wouldn’t do anything differently because in a way, they’re just swept along on the journey. It doesn’t give them time to think at that stage.”

“Of course, once the surgery is done and you have some downtime before you start the next treatment, which is chemotherapy, I’m sure they were very upset. It’s hard, the whole process, but for me I would rather have cancer again than have to break it to them again because that was really, really awful.”

“So, my type of breast cancer at the time only had three options of treatment. One being surgery, the other being chemotherapy and then radiotherapy. The other subtypes have things like endocrine therapy and so on.”

“So, I started with surgery. They’ve changed it around now and I think now is a better way of doing it. But at the time, surgery went first. And so, they removed the lump, and they removed all the lymph nodes in my armpit because they thought four or five of them were affected.”

“It turned out only one was affected, but I lost all my lymph nodes, and that means that I’m susceptible to things like lymphedema. I then had chemotherapy for six months, and then radiotherapy, which was 30 rounds, which works out to be six weeks. It’s every day, Monday to Friday.”

“With the surgery, the first issue I faced was scar tissue. They give you exercises at the hospital, and there’s a physiotherapist who comes around and says, here’s a list of exercises. Do them, but don’t push yourself if it hurts. So, I didn’t push myself because it was hurting. And what it meant was that I had this thick almost guitar string, from under my breast up through my shoulder all the way down to my wrist, which was limiting my movement.”

“I couldn’t lift my arm past my shoulder. And apparently that’s called cording, and I had to go and see a special physiotherapist to break it. And they break it by basically digging their fingers into your flesh, where the scar tissue is, and pushing down and massaging it, and it’s very painful.”

“In terms of chemotherapy, most people think the extent of it is hair loss and nausea, but you actually don’t get nausea anymore because they give you steroids, but that means you’re hungry and you put on weight. It’s the opposite problem to what you think it is. And your family members overfeed you because they think you’re dying, and that’s the way of them showing you love.”

“But also, there were things like when your hair falls out, your scalp hurts. You don’t realize that, but it’s painful, because your scalp becomes very sensitive. You get ulcers in your mouth, you can either have constipation and or diarrhea, you get joint pain, your fatigue is bad. And with the radiotherapy, you get burnt basically, and some people end up with blisters. I fortunately didn’t, but you get this layer of skin that’s basically dried up and burnt and it itches, and it hurts at the same time, which is a weird feeling.”

“And there’s other people who have extra therapies, like endocrine therapy and Herceptin and so on, and they come with their own side effects as well. But in my case, those are the things that I had, and with the side effects, the other problem is, you think you can put up with it because it’ll only last as long as the treatment lasts, and then you can move on. But it doesn’t. It keeps going. And somebody said to me, it takes you two years to feel human again. And they’re mostly right. It’s taken me longer, but it’s quite a long process of recovery.”

How are you feeling now?

“So, in my case one of the chemotherapies damaged my nerves, so I’ve ended up with chronic pain in all my major joints, which is why I’m unable to work full time anymore. But what I’ve done is I’ve used that as motivation to try and improve the quality of life of other cancer patients because there’s ways of actually being more targeted now.”

“There are some breast cancer patients for whom chemotherapy is of no use. And so, my advocacy around that is, if you don’t have to use it, one, it saves costs, but it’s actually saving them a lot of agony and pain and long-term side effects and a reduced quality of life.”

Before your diagnosis, what did you think about breast cancer?

“There was no cancer in our family, so I didn’t really know much about it other than there being a bunch of famous people who got diagnosed, and of course you know it’s in the breast. And you see people lose their hair and look unwell.”

“But then the moment treatment finishes, voila, they’re back to being normal again. But the depth of information and knowledge you gain when you’re going through it is endless, and you realise that breast cancer is different to bowel cancer, which is different to lung cancer.”

“They’re all very different in how you feel, and they’re all very different in the treatment process. There are also different subtypes of breast cancer, which have different therapy types. You go through the treatment and then you realise that unlike other chronic diseases, the breast cancer treatment or cancer treatment actually makes you feel worse.”

“So, you need a long recovery time at the end of it. I still remember I was filling out the form at work to get time off, and I filled it out and I was like ‘okay I’m going to have six months of chemotherapy, six-weeks of radiotherapy, and I think I’ll finish up mid-September. So, I’ll take a couple of weeks off, and then I’ll be back in October.”

“And Human Resources had filled out the same form at work, and the human resources person had given me time off till February the following year. And I’d forgotten that you need time to recovery from the treatment, and I’d forgotten about how bad the treatment makes you feel.”

“I think the other thing I learned is before I went through the treatment, I thought I would go back to who I was. I would take time off, have my treatment, finish treatment, and then go back to the person I used to be. And the thing is, nobody does. You’re changed, both mentally and physically.”

Why is it important to try and find kinder treatments with fewer side effects for breast cancer patients?

“I think it’s important because so far I think the focus of treatment has been to save the person’s life, which is great, we really appreciate that and the patient is all for having their life saved, but what happens is you then have to live with the consequences of the treatment, and the side effects that go on for life.”

“And once upon a time we had a very blunt instrument of surgery to remove the entire breast. And then we started looking at other ways of treating breast cancer and stopping it coming back. So, we added radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and now we’ve added endocrine therapies and immunotherapies and so on.”

“So, we’re getting better at realizing what works, and getting better at finessing, but we’re not there yet in the sense of applying it to the wider population. And so, I think it’s necessary to start being more finessed in how we treat patients because some of us will live for 30, 40, 50 more years with the consequences of the treatment that we’re given.”

If you could share a message to the thousands of people who donate to Breast Cancer Trials, what would you say?

“Firstly, I want to say thank you to them because the money that they donate goes towards cancer research, and it saves lives. Clinical trials are critical because we need to get better at finessing things, and we also haven’t dealt with the problem entirely.”

“Breast cancer has a 92 percent survival rate, but it differs for the different subtypes. If you take it on average, there’s still 8 percent of people dying. One in seven women get diagnosed with breast cancer. And it could be you, or your family member, or a friend. And it takes a toll on the community.”

Putting money into clinical trials research helps the end outcome, and it helps improve outcomes for people who’ve got breast cancer. I would also love it if we had no more deaths from breast cancer. I know it’s a pie in the sky kind of ambition, but while people are working on that, my focus is very much on improving quality of life outcomes for people who’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer, and getting more finessed on how we deal with it.”

“And so that’s why I joined Breast Cancer Trials as a consumer on their Consumer Advisory Panel because I want researchers to be aware of the issues that people who’ve been treated for cancer face.”

Our life-saving breast cancer research is only possible thanks to the continued generosity of our supporters. Please help continue this vital work by making a donation today.  

What was treatment like for you?

“Going through treatment, to be honest, it wasn’t as bad as what I thought. When you talk about cancer and chemotherapy, you only hear the bad stories. You don’t hear the good stories. It’s kind of like childbirth, you only hear the horror stories.”

“I was really fortunate to tolerate the chemotherapy quite well. Apart from feeling a little queasy, I didn’t have really any other nausea or things like that. Some side effects that I had from the chemotherapy was, sadly, I had lost all my hair, which was such a confronting time for me.”

“In the big picture, it probably shouldn’t feel like a really hard part of the journey, but being a female who always likes to look nice, yeah, losing my hair was a huge moment. And it was for the girls as well. They love their hair, and they could see how difficult it was. They actually came with me when my hairdresser shaved my head, and it was a pretty tough day for them as well.”

“The day that I finished radiation was such an uplifting moment. It meant that I was the end of my significant treatment. Although I am on a hormone replacement therapy tablet, it’s just a tablet a day. It’s nothing, there’s nothing to it. But the day that I finished radiation, I sat in the car and cried happy tears instead of sad tears.”

Did you have a family history of breast cancer?

“Before my diagnosis, I did think about breast cancer more so than probably the average person, I suppose, because we do have a family history of it. I’ve just got my genetic testing back, only last week and the results were fantastic, because there was no sign of family history.”

“It just meant that I was very unlucky to have breast cancer, and even though there is still a chance that there could be a genetic mutation, it’s good news so far, especially looking towards the next generation for our girls.”

“My perception of breast cancer has significantly changed. I think, even though breast cancer has been in our family before I never thought it would happen to me. I felt invincible. I just thought it would happen to someone else. But my diagnosis was such a wakeup call and a slap in the face moment, I suppose.”

“It was really a ‘wow this is huge, and it’s happened to me’ moment, and let’s deal with it. And Breast cancer trials to me means an organisation that is vital in providing research to find better outcomes for breast cancer patients.”

“The trials that they are performing means that hopefully one day we can have a breast cancer free world, which is what everybody wants and especially what I want for our girls. My hope for the future is simply a breast cancer free world. Nobody deserves to have to go through the diagnosis, or the treatment, or any part of it. And if we have a breast cancer free world, I know that my girls will be happy and healthy.’

What words of encouragement could you offer someone who was navigating a breast cancer diagnosis?

“I know everybody’s journey, everybody’s diagnosis, and everybody’s feelings are all so different, but I would say just listen to the professionals, listen to your doctor, listen to your surgeon, listen to the oncology team, and just do what they advise. Stay positive. I manifested a lot, I just dreamt of being well, and now I am.”

“So, stay as positive as you can, I know it’s so difficult and don’t worry I still have meltdowns and ‘why me’ moments, but all in all if you can just try and stay positive, I think that helps a lot.”