Rube Nixon - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cancer Website

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Rube Nixon

Rube takes us through her personal journey from diagnosis to treatment to survivorship with breast cancer.

The main thing that I really want to stress to women and men out there is to have the support of your family and friends. This is really, really important to have these friends around you.

Yeah. My name is Ruby Nixon. I come from Cunnamulla. I’m a Kunya, Kunya person, and I’m a cancer survivor, which I’m so proud of.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer 16 years ago, and I’m here today to tell you that I got through my treatment, but really, I didn’t have treatment. I diagnosed myself. Working as a nurse, I realised then that there was something wrong.

I trusted my own gut instinct.

I went to my doctor and said, Look, I’ve got breast cancer. Send me away from here now. And from then on it was just a roller coaster.

I told her about a group of 5 people swore complete silence. Don’t tell anybody until I was sure of what and where I was going.

So my family, and yeah, we just, I was lucky to have a really good surgeon when I got to Toowoomba Hospital and then we worked from there. The rest is history.

I’ve just enjoyed every single thing that happened to me after.

There is, there is life after breast cancer and I definitely, yeah, I just ran with it.

I went back to work. I really gave up work – I never worked for at least two years – is a, I got that as one of the other women in hospital saying with me said that was good advice.

The main thing that I really want to stress to women and men out there is to have the support of your family and friends.

This is really, really important to have these friends around you.

Trust your own gut instincts.

If you feel that there’s something wrong, don’t let, don’t, don’t have no for an answer. Just go and just go with it.

And if you’re not satisfied, go to another doctor and seek a second opinion. And also be positive.

And never give up. Just. Just keep. Keep on, keep on, keep on. How can I stress that any any more?

Because it’s so important to have your family. You don’t want to have to wait before you pass on. But sometimes people do.