Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like the member who just gave the address and like all members of parliament, I love my job on Australia Day, because for a few moments we get thrown into the lives of wonderful, amazing people who do dramatic and challenging things in our communities. We get to meet them. One that I was so excited about this year was Paula Summerfield, who after suffering breast cancer was given a comfort cushion. She said to herself, 'Gee, this has been so good for me in hospital.' They are often so burnt and knocked about that they use those comfort cushions at home as well, or they lose their boobs, so they roll over and they do not have a boob. I met this expressive woman, who told me the story about what she has done to help to help other breast cancer victims, not only in the Warragul and Gippsland area but now spread all over the state. She has 80 people starting with her just in the local area, and she was the Baw Baw Shire Council's Citizen of the Year. What a pleasure to meet the woman who has committed herself to a need. If you have a bag after an operation, they make a special bag for the bag to go in, out of colourful material that looks great and can be used by these cancer victims. Cancer, including breast cancer and other women's cancers, is a terrible scourge in our community, but we have people like Paula who actually make a difference to real people.

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