“LIFE was exciting,” said Sharon Henningsen.
“I was planning to work for one more year and I had so much to look forward to, including visiting our son and daughter-in-law in the USA, welcoming new grandchildren into the family and preparing for my first art exhibition.”
All this changed overnight when Sharon was diagnosed with advanced, aggressive, Stage Three, endometrial cancer; something she’d never even heard of before.
It was on her first day in the United States in July last year to visit her son that the well-known and much loved former Tamborine Mountain teacher noticed a bit of spotting, but nothing more for a week.
Then another day of spotting.
“I googled it and read in rare cases it can be endometrial cancer,” she said.
The spotting continued on and off for four weeks while she was overseas.
As soon as she got home, she went to doctor and had an ultrasound and was referred to a gynaecologic oncologist.
The cancer, she was told, was growing at 10mm a week.
“I was pretty shocked. Even when I had the ultrasound, I thought this can’t be happening to me,” she shared.
“At first the surgeon thought it could be a low grade and a good chance of being curable.
“Late on the seventh day (following tests) he rang and said it was much worse than he’d thought. That hit hard.”
Sharon had a hysterectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
“If I had known what I know now I’d have got on a plane straightaway,” she said.
“The big thing is to get it early. It has a 95 per cent cure rate but the prognosis for Stages Three and Four is not good, unless you get immunotherapy, which is what I’m trying to do.”
Uterine cancer does not get the publicity of other cancers and there isn’t an organisation for it in Australia.
However, a State of the Nation report in November 2025 revealed it is now Australia’s fastest growing female cancer.
Last year there were approximately nine to 10 women diagnosed every day, and more than 700 women were expected to die from it last year.
The report said without urgent action projections indicate over 44,000 new cases and nearly 9000 deaths over the next decade.
Sharon said she personally knows four people on the mountain who have it. One had the lightest spotting and after learning about Sharon’s diagnosis went to the doctor.
Her prompt action caught it at Stage One cancer and her prognosis is good.
Unfortunately, Sharon’s diagnosis is not as optimistic, however, her research led her to discover Dostarlimab immunotherapy – a treatment widely used around the world which offers significant improvement in outcomes.
“The facts were pretty clear, if I stayed on chemotherapy alone I had a pretty poor prognosis and that’s how I came across the Dostarlimab immunotherapy,” she explained.
Without the immunotherapy her survival rate would be less than 20 per cent of living for five years.
The immunotherapy reduces the progression free survival time and the death outcome by as much as 72 per cent.
“It’s a game changer,” she stated.
“In Australia, immunotherapy is readily available for many of the common forms of cancer, such as melanoma, lung and breast cancer. This is not the case for many of the rare cancers like mine.
“Dostarlimab for Stage Three endometrial cancer is accessible on the publicly funded Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) if a recurrence has taken place after a period of six months, or if the patient has not had surgery, which is the current standard protocol.
“In effect it can only be funded when the cancer has metastasised or is Stage Four.
“I am faced with the decision of waiting for a recurrence, which my oncologist said is inevitable, then trying to apply to the PBS to have Dostarlimab funded, knowing my chance of survival is greatly diminished, or to forge ahead now and be treated with immunotherapy with a very real chance of gaining durable remission and extending my life.”
With the help of family, Sharon is forging ahead with immunotherapy, having had two treatments already at a cost of $8112 each.
The total treatment will cost $300,000, something that is way beyond Sharon’s means.
“It’s reckless to embark on this without having the money,” she said.
“We were reliant on my teaching income so now we are just living our days between treatments.”
Sharon and her family have set up a GoFundMe page in a desperate bid to raise the funds needed to continue her treatment as well as raise awareness of the disease.
“I am asking for a chance of life, an opportunity to continue working with children in schools, with cycling and water skiing, with honing my painting skills and putting together that art exhibition I was aiming for,” she pleaded.
“I have always been active, always lived a healthy lifestyle, I just want a chance to continue.”
The address of Sharon’s GoFundMe page is
