AFULE TLC - Carla Jones Frocktober Fundraiser
Donation protected
Comrades & Friends,
Our AFULE (Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Employees) Industrial Officer, Carla Jones, recently shared with us that she has been diagnosed with Stage IV Ovarian Cancer. Carla hasn’t been with us for long, but she has been a heavy weight within the Union movement for a long time, a staunch advocate for women and has taken on blues for the AFULE as one of our own, right from the start.
From my own personal experience, I have looked to Carla for advice on a variety of issues, both regular Union business and advocacy within our women’s space, and she has consistently shown the knowledge, strength and passion needed to help us improve the working conditions of our people since she started with us. From the beginning, it didn’t take long for me to admire her tenacity, sharp wit, good sense of humour and raw honesty. She has quickly become a woman I can look up to, to learn from and guide us in the right direction; which incudes healthy disagreements at times and chuckling at my “tantrums” as she calls them - which she refers to in the most endearing way. (Companies typically do not have the workers interests at heart and it brings out the mongrel in the best of us! Haha.) ❤️ We all hope to see Carla recover from this and get back to doing what she loves.
Carla has decided to run a Frocktober Fundraiser, which will be held in Brisbane on the 28th of October and has said “Having recently been diagnosed with Stage IV Ovarian cancer, I’ve been horrified by the statistics and the lack of early detection of this disease. The hope is to raise funds to go towards early screening and detection so that no one else has to find out at 10pm on a Sunday evening in an emergency department that they have a terminal disease. Please give generously.”
The AFULE will be donating to this important fundraiser on the day of the event, however the AFULE Traincrew Ladies Collective - our space for activism within the women’s movement - would like to reach out to the community and raise additional funds in support of Carla’s Frocktober Fundraiser for Ovarian Cancer, which she holds dear to her heart.
Did You Know?
- Around 1,815 Australians are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year
- Approximately 1000 lives are lost to ovarian cancer annually in Australia
- There is no early detection test for ovarian cancer — a pap/cervical smear does not detect ovarian cancer
- Although a small number of cases are associated with a genetic predisposition, the cause of most cases remains unknown
- Due to vagueness of symptoms and lack of an early detection test, around 70% of cases are diagnosed when the cancer is in the advanced stages, having already spread to other parts of the body.
- Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cause of death from cancer among females in Australia
- The average five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer patients is 49%, compared with 92% for breast cancer, 84% for uterine cancer, and 74% for cervical cancer.
All funds raised by Carla will go directly to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, which will raise awareness and fund potentially life-saving research.
In Solidarity,
Claudia Payne
AFULE Branch Secretary & Women’s Officer
Organizer
Claudia Payne
Organizer
Blackwater, QLD