But the journey, like that of hundreds of other people with cancer in NSW, left her emotionally and physically exhausted as she experienced the frustration, the expense and the loneliness caused by having to travel away from home for radiotherapy.

She has joined the Cancer Council North West and called on the State Government to be more accountable to people with cancer and unblock the state’s clogged radiotherapy services, which is preventing people from accessing lifesaving treatment.

Her personal account is one of 268 collated by the Cancer Council earlier in this year during a call-in in an effort to paint a better picture of the difficulties faced by people requiring cancer treatment.

Of the callers, 15 per cent were from the Hunter-New England region.

Now their stories have been compiled into Roadblocks to Radiotherapy – stories behind the statistics, highlighting the issues that leave up to 5000 patients without treatment each year.

Limited availability of radiotherapy services forced several callers to travel hundreds of kilometres each day for treatment, pay for up to six weeks’ accommodation, or be saddled with bills for private treatment.

In the North West, 1100 people on average are diagnosed with cancer each year, and this is on the increase statewide.

However, with no radiotherapy treatment options in the region, many choose to forego treatment altogether for radical surgery that won’t remove them from local support networks.

Cancer Council North West manager Christine Roach said this patients’ perspective follows more than 16 radiotherapy-focused reports, 11 written or commissioned by NSW Health Department over the past decade.

“This unique report is the first patients’ perspective in a long line of reports looking at radiotherapy issues in NSW and sadly, the findings confirm what we already know,” she said.