‘You are not alone’: Councillor shares breast cancer journey as city wears yellow in support of Daffodil Day

A Perth councillor has opened up about her recent breast cancer journey as Daffodil Day marks 40 years of raising money for cancer research.

Daffodil Day first began in 1986, when five-year cancer survival rates were about 46 per cent. Today, survival rates have increased to 72 per cent, with decades of cancer research helping improve the outcomes of treatment.

City of Vincent North ward councillor Suzanne Worner said her own experience had reinforced the importance of both early detection and continued investment in research.

“My experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer has made me feel like I should be the poster girl for early detection,” Cr Worner said.

“I had absolutely no symptoms. I couldn’t feel a lump, I didn’t feel unwell, and I had no reason to think anything was wrong.”

It was a new health setback for Cr Worner who in 2022 told PerthNow that a constant runny nose was revealed as cerebrospinal fluid leaking from her brain which required urgent neurosurgery to fix.

She said it was her friends who had encouraged her to have a mammogram that led to her diagnosis earlier this year.

“I was at an age where screening should have been part of my regular healthcare routine, but I had continued to put it off,” she said.

“There was always something else to do, and without any symptoms, it simply didn’t feel urgent.”

Cr Worner eventually booked a routine mammogram, expecting nothing to be found in the results.

“That experience completely changed my understanding of early detection.”

She said that early detection gave her more treatment options and enabled her medical team to act before the cancer progressed further.

“If I had waited until I could feel a lump or had some other sign that something was wrong, my story could have been very different,” she said.

Throughout her treatment, Cr Worner was supported by a friend who had experienced breast cancer almost 20 years earlier.