Dry July doyenne’s close-to-home cause

FOR long-time Dry July campaigner Judy Rossignuolo, raising money for Bendigo Health’s Cancer Centre during the yearly fundraising drive is personal.

Diagnosed with breast cancer nine years ago, her entire course of therapy took place at the centre, a circumstance she remains thankful for.

Looking back, she said she hadn’t noticed any symptoms when she discovered the lump on her breast in 2017.

“It was a couple months before we were due to go on holiday and I felt fine,” she said.

“The cancer was a little bit down the track – it was on the bigger side.”

Given the fairly advanced nature of her life-threatening disease, treatment commenced promptly.

“I started off with chemotherapy and they were hoping that the cancer would completely disappear, but there was still a little bit left,” Rossignuolo said.

“So, then there was surgery and radiotherapy after that.”

Now in remission, she cannot speak highly enough of not only the treatment she received at the cancer centre but the convenience of its proximity as well.

“The facilities are very good,” she said.

“I have a sister who lives in Melbourne and she commented that we’re luckier here in Bendigo.

“If she needed care for something, she’d have to drive 40, 45 minutes to get to the hospital, whereas Bendigo Health is barely 15 minutes from me.

“I feel that my whole journey was underpinned by the great support I had there.”

She now raises funds for Dry July by holding a high tea for family and friends at her comfortable home in Maiden Gully.

“When I did it the first year after my treatment, of course everyone was on board trying to sponsor me,” she said.

“Then there was a bit less the next year and a bit less the next year and I thought I can’t just keep asking people for money all the time.

“I felt it could be good if they got something for it – that’s when I had the idea of having a high tea.

“It’s a bit of a thing that we like to go to and it feels like it’s special and it felt doable.”

She said she also appreciates the fact that her fundraising efforts can stay local and help people in the Bendigo region.

“It feels more relevant,” she said.

“Cancer is always something that needs funding in a lot of areas, but to donate to me would mean your money’s staying locally.

“It’s helping the people of Bendigo and the people who use Bendigo Health.”

Rossignuolo said her health going forward is essentially in her hands now.

“I go to my GP and I get him to organise mammograms and ultrasounds and all of that, which is no problem, and obviously I’d be straight back in if something went pear-shaped,” she said.

“We’ve reached the point this far out that I’m as I would have been had I not had cancer.”

Visit Dry July to donate.