Fighting back

Eight years ago UNSW Honours student Shiloh Middlemiss was a plucky teenager battling cancer. Now she is searching for a cure for the very disease that almost killed her.

24-year-old Shiloh spends her day in the lab working on a molecular inhibitor project to combat cancer.

"My illness has made me driven," the research student told the Southern Courier newspaper.

"My passion is to find answers for therapy for childhood cancer. It's my way of giving back to the people who helped me."

She was 15 when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. An emergency bone marrow transplant from her brother saved her life.

"My world was turned upside down," Shiloh said of the surgery and recovery process. She endured nose bleeds and rounds of chemotherapy for nine months.

After her experience Shiloh decided she wanted to make a "tiny" difference to childhood cancer. Her research at the UNSW Lowy Cancer Research Centre and the Children's Cancer Institute Australia is a way to achieve her goal.

Shiloh recently received financial assistance from a Redkite scholarship, specifically aimed at supporting young people with cancer.

Read the full story at the Southern Courier.

Media contact: Steve Offner, UNSW Media Office | 02 9285 8107