Not only does participating in the Busselton health survey contribute to global health research – the information provided to participants can be invaluable as we can learn from Denise Henchie’s experience while participating in the Busselton Baby Boomer Study.

Four to five years prior to the 2011 Busselton Survey Denise had been feeling fatigued and had been told by numerous doctors that everything was OK.  In the end she put it down to over doing things and continued to push through and persevere while feeling quite poorly.  After she completed the 2011 Survey, she received a phone call from the Health Study staff recommending that she make an appointment to see her doctor due to abnormal results returned from the survey.  As a consequence of that phone call her doctor requested an ultrasound of the abdomen and an endoscopy and other tests which found that Denise had kidney cancer and was also suffering coeliac disease.

Denise had her kidney removed and changed her diet because of this discovery and diagnosis. Denise has since been through the second phase of the study and everything has returned to normal – she has never felt better. When preparing this newsletter we checked in with Denise again and she is still very thankful for having been part of the Busselton Baby Boomer Study.