June• 2018 | 41READER’S DIGEST
the body,” says medical oncologist
Dr David Shiba. “Cancers that have
spread to the lymph nodes, liver, lung,
bone or brain are becoming few and
far between.” A good deal of credit
goes to the discovery that one treat-
ment doesn’t fit all. Using the right
treatment for an individual’s cancer
subtype saves lives and prolongs sur-
vival times for many women.
Newer drugs have turned even
static disease into a chronic illness
that patients can live with for years.
Living
Transplants
Too few people donate organs
to keep up with the need.
THEGOODNEWS
From 2015 to 2016, living
donations(kidneyandliver)
inAustraliaandNewZealand
increasedbyninepercent.
HOWITHAPPENED
More people understand that most
of us can live with just one kidney;
live donations of livers are even
lower risk.
Daniel Germanos of North Rocks,
New South Wales, was just 17 years
old when he was diagnosed with
kidney disease back in 2014. He
embarked on a regime of medications,
including steroids, but his condition
deteriorated rapidly.
It was obvious to all concerned
that dialysis was Daniel’s next step.
But Daniel and his parents were con-
fronted by a stark truth: to have any
chance of living a normal life, Daniel
would have to undergo a kidney trans-
plant. here was just one problem: the
waiting list for a donor kidney was be-
tween ive to ten years.
“We knew we couldn’t let him wait
that long so we started looking into
live donations in the hope one of us
would be a suitable match,” says Rita
Germanos. Daniel’s father was ruled
unsuitable, and Rita was ruled out due
to being too overweight.
So Rita began a regime of training
and weight loss. “Not many mothers
get to test their unconditional love like
this,” she says. Over 12 months, Rita
lost 32 kg until Daniels’ doctors inally
gave her the go-ahead. In December
2017, Rita and Daniel underwent sur-
gery, which was a success.
Daniel urges people to join the
organ donation register [www.
donatelife.gov.au or http://www.donor.
co.nz]. “Everyone should be on it be-
cause there are so many people that
need one,” he says.
We now have new, better treatments
for some of our most dreaded condi-
tions. We’ve discovered that it might
be possible to prevent some of these
illnesses. Even those diseases still
lacking an efective remedy have be-
gun to reveal their secrets. What was
once a death sentence is today often
treatable, even curable. And tomor-
row? With ongoing research, each
year brings better news.