World Cancer Day 2025: close the care gap
“Happy” World Cancer Day. A shout out to all who are navigating a cancer journey and the amazing researchers and health professionals who are changing lives.
While diagnosis and treatment options are still lagging for some cancers in Australia (hello ovarian, pancreatic and rare cancers!) its light years ahead of many countries around the world.
This year’s theme is ‘close the care gap’. Meeting Dr Andrew Soma at COSA Survivorship conference in 2023 immediately came to mind. Andrew is an incredibly modest man juggling the care of most adult cancers in his homeland, where some days treatment can’t go ahead for lack of basic necessities.
Andrew is the ONLY oncologist in the Solomon Islands. He did his medical training in PNG and recently completed a Masters in Cancer Science (Melbourne Uni). I had some eye opening conversations with him regarding the conditions he works under (earthquakes and civil unrest aside) in the country’s only oncology clinic. The facilities, electricity supply and other basic services remain problematic, with some pathology samples needing to be sent off shore taking a month to receive urgent results. On some days the particular drugs a patient may have traveled for hours to receive isn’t available, on others the chemotherapy is in stock but can’t be administered due to having no saline to flush the lines.
Andrew attended COSA at the suggestion of one of his Australian mentors. He told me “I’d never considered ‘survivorship’ before”. With so many communities around the world struggling to provide basic cancer diagnostics and care, survivorship is indeed a luxury.
If you’d like to hear more about this incredible doctor, listen to this ABC interview with Dr Desmond Yip ad Palliative Care Nurse Kate Reed who share his story and ends with a short conversation with Dr Andrew Soma.

Dr Andrew Soma (right) with three of the 2023 CCREW consumer scholarship recipients.
About Gill Stannard
Gill is an experienced consumer in research and ovarian cancer survivor. She currently collaborates with more than dozen researchers and consumer panels, and is a Chief Investigator on an MRFF funded study into Drug Repurposing for Treatment Resistant Ovarian Cancer (University of Newcastle). Gill is a naturopath with over 30 years in clinical practice and has a keen interest in the use of CAM supporting cancer patients and recovery from conventional treatment.