Starting her nursing career in Scotland working on the infectious diseases ward, Kirsty soon realised dealing with worms on a daily basis wasn’t for her and quickly made the switch to oncology.

Since then she has travelled and worked her way through Scotland and England before meeting an Aussie working in the same Canadian hospital and making the move down under together.

“I love working in oncology because the work is so varied and when you walk through the doors onto our floor time does seem to slow down,” Kirsty said.

“We are the ones who add a bit of laughter to a cancer patient’s day and bring hope that things will get better.

“When I moved to Australia – with my now husband – we worked at St Vincent's in Sydney before moving to the Port Macquarie Base Hospital nearly eight years ago now and I love it.”

She said being a nurse in oncology is different to a nurse in emergency and another acute wards at the hospital because you build relationships over months and even years.

“Working in oncology I am with patients from the moment I call them for their first appointment right through to outpatient care,” she said.

“Everyone on our unit knows why there are here and we do what we can to help them through their treatment.

“The best part about my job is that I help people right along their cancer journey. I become involved in their lives.

“I learn about their pets, family and friends and I share part of me with them so that when they are going through something so horrible they know we care about them and their treatments.

“It does help that they can come to us for all their treatments. In the past cancer patients might have had to go to Sydney for months at a time but we can now care for pretty much all their treatments which is good for them.

“It adds stability which when your world it turned upside down is a good thing.”

Kirsty said it is an exciting time to be an oncology nurse as new treatments and technologies are always being developed.

“When I started most people who would have chemotherapy would come to hospital to get it intravenously but these days more and more people can take chemotherapy tablets which are just as potent,” she said.

“Melanoma is the disease of our generation and we are seeing so many more people come through our doors.

“However there are always new advancements being made and we now have so many more options when treating cancer.

“To be at the front of that is exciting because it means we can help more and more people.”

If you know someone who has an interesting job or a story to tell contact Laura Telford on 0425 151 551 or laura.telford@fairfaxmedia.com.au today!

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