Hero’s health heartache

By Shaun Inguanzo
A SELFLESS community hero faces an uncertain future as she struggles to gather money to pay for lifesaving surgery.
Former Noble Park opportunity shop worker Sandra Carr was earlier this month awarded a Special Commendation at the 2005 Frances Penington Award by Victorian Premier Steve Bracks in recognition of her contributions to public housing and her community in the City of Greater Dandenong.
Ms Carr spent eight years at Noble Park’s opportunity shop, established by the Eastern Region Mental Health Association, and now runs a support group for isolated lowincome earners as well as caring for her elderly mother.
Ms Carr’s award recognises her as a role model for other public housing residents, including her own public housing community in Dandenong South.
But Ms Carr fears she will be unable to continue her work unless she can pay for a lifesaving operation for a rare disease.
She said Addison’s disease was debilitating.
“There are shocking symptoms,” she said.
“It causes heart disease, which I have got, diabetes, which I have got, osteoporosis, which I haven’t got yet, and I have been told I will have to be fitted for a (supportive) brace for my back.”
Ms Carr said her cortisone treatment increased her hunger and had made her clinically obese, meaning she required a lapbanding operation to reduce her food intake and allow continuing treatment of her disease.
She said her medical specialist told her the operation was a “matter of life or death”.
But the lowincome retiree said the wait for a public lapbanding operation was five years.
The wait could be too late after a specialist told the 57yearold he would not do the lapbanding surgery after Ms Carr turned 60 because she would be too old.
Ms Carr said there was also a possibility her health would deteriorate, leaving her dead before five years was up.
She said private medical treatment was the only option, but she could not afford it.
“My endocrinologist said I could get it done privately at the cost of $11,000, which, of course, I haven’t got.
“Waiting five years will be a bit too late for me.”
In a state of despair, Ms Carr is appealing to the community for help in paying for her operation.
“It is a horrible thing to have to ask for,” she said. “I hate having to ask that.”
Ms Carr said she was recently diagnosed with a brain tumour, but she will be operated on by January.
But her passion for running the support group Restoring Hope and caring for her 77yearold mother remains strong despite her health. Ms Carr said the group aimed to bring adults, isolated through low incomes, back into the community.
“They can’t afford to go out for a meal, and it gets them out in a group and they socialise in that group,” Ms Carr said.
In the wake of her award she also praised her 22 years in public housing, saying it was an honour to be recognised by the State Government for her community contributions.