Giulia Jones, CEO of Painaustralia and former Canberra Liberals MLA, was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, and is undergoing chemotherapy. On Monday, she will have her head shaved at Cataldo’s Salon, Civic, to raise money for young women with cancer and living with pain, who she says face barriers and bias when seeking treatment.

“While I was diagnosed at 43 and after having kids, many young women have a much harder time of all the choices they have to make,” Mrs Jones said.

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women aged 20–39, according to the Breast Cancer Network Australia, but the disease is often considered an older women’s condition.

“Young women in this situation face tough choices about fertility and breast surgery, and are thrust into rounds of debilitating chemotherapy just to stay alive,” Mrs Jones said.

“Chemotherapy and surgery are confronting and very hard to go through. I want younger women with breast cancer like I have to feel that they are seen and supported.”

Mrs Jones hopes to raise $30,000 for So Brave, Australia’s young women’s breast cancer charity, and Painaustralia, the peak body for people with chronic pain.

SoBrave is working with researchers to design a blood screening test for all young women that has a higher detection rate than current tests and is likely to have a higher uptake rate, thus saving more young women’s lives.

“SoBrave is an amazing charity focussing on young women with cancer,” Mrs Jones said. “They send women information [and] also letters from other women who have been through the same thing. In the overwhelming tidal wave of information I was given with my diagnosis, I found that these letters were the most helpful and empowering tool I was given as to how to tackle this challenge.”

Painaustralia is working to ensure GPs take young women and those with chronic pain more seriously and treat them more thoroughly when they seek care.

“When seeking breast scans for cancer at a younger age, there are more barriers and sometimes medical professionals discount the possibility of cancer, because it is seen as an older person’s issue,” Mrs Jones said.

“I also know that when young women have chronic pain, they are often dismissed and experience a bias against them when seeking relief from for example chronic pelvic pain. So, there is so much more for us to do in health advocacy for young women.”

Donations to the Headshave can be made at: https://painaustralia-ceo-headshave.raisely.com/.