Forgive me, everyone, if you think this is inappropriate but I really want to mark the passing of a remarkable woman who has worked so hard for us lobular ladies:
( Apologies for the random formatting ! )
Press Statement from the Lobular Moon Shot Project Campaign
Dr Susan Michaelis – 1962-2025
On Wednesday 9th July 2025, Dr Susan Michaelis, Founder of Lobular Moon Shot
Project sadly passed away from lobular breast cancer, 14 years after her initial
diagnosis. She died peacefully at 5pm proudly wearing her Lobular Moon Shot
Project T-shirt. She was surrounded by her husband Tristan Loraine and some close
friends.
Susan launched the Lobular Moon Shot Project with Tristan, in May 2023, to get
funding for a £20-million five-year research project to finally understand the basic
biology of invasive lobular breast cancer. On her passing, the Lobular Moon Shot
Project is the most bipartisan politically supported campaign in the nation, with over
370 MPs of all parties calling on the government to fund vital research into the
second most common type of breast cancer. Something Susan was immensely
proud of.
Lobular breast cancer accounts for 15% of all breast cancers, 22 women are
diagnosed with the disease in the UK every day - 1000 people a day globally.
During her 14 years suffering with this cruel and brutal illness, Susan was given eight
different forms of breast cancer treatment but none of them were able to stop the
disease progressing. None of the treatments she received were developed based
on the basic biology of lobular breast cancer, because despite this disease being
known about for more than 80 years, this work has not yet been done. Susan and
her team of women campaigners who have all been touched by this disease, raised
over £125,000 in the last couple of years to set up the infrastructure to carry out this
research at the Manchester Breast Centre, led by Professor Robert Clarke. She was
due to meet the Health Secretary Mr Wes Streeting on Monday, 14th of July 2025 to
ask the government to carry out the will of the majority of MPs and to fund this
urgently needed research, research that the former Health Secretary, Ms Victoria
Atkins had agreed to fund during her time in the previous government.
Susan’s remarkable campaign to help the millions of women worldwide diagnosed
with lobular breast cancer was not the first time she had tried to do good for all of
humanity. As a young girl, she always dreamt about being a pilot, but there were
very few opportunities for women to become commercial pilots in Australia at the
time, so she completed a degree in marketing and saved up the money to become
a private pilot. After teaching people to fly, she finally became an airline pilot,
starting off in the challenging Northern Territory of Australia, flying to remote
communities. In 1994, when she was 32, she started flying the British Aerospace
BAe 146 and immediately noticed a strange smell in the aircraft. The breathing air
supply was being contaminated with jet engine oil decomposition products. Despite
being told there was nothing to be concerned about, she suffered increasing health
effects from these exposures. Three years later in 1997, she collapsed after a flight.
She felt she was having a stroke. She never flew as an airline pilot again, three years
of exposure to a complex mixture of chemicals, including organophosphates,
carbon monoxide and endocrine disrupting chemicals had seriously impacted her
health and she lost her airline pilot medical certificate.
To understand how this could have happened in what is said to be the safest
industry in the world, she started to research the issue. Two years later, she was
partly responsible for the Australian Senate carrying out a year-long investigation
into the problem. They concluded these chemical exposures were impacting flight
safety and crew and public health. She was determined that the aviation industry
should resolve the problem, so she undertook the first-ever PhD into the subject
and also later qualified as an air accident investigator. She published numerous
scientific papers on the subject, briefed airlines, oil manufacturers, governments and
countless others on the topic. She debriefed over 1000 passengers and crew who
had all suffered similar exposures on other aircraft. In 2007, ten years after her last
flight as an airline pilot, Australian Senator Kerry O’Brien revealed a secret
agreement between British Aerospace, the aircraft engine manufacturer and two
Australian airlines, in which a large sum of money and aircraft parts were given in a
settlement for problems relating to the oil contaminating the breathing air supply on
the aircraft model she flew. The Senator called the agreement 'cash for silence’. It
was signed one year before she started flying on the aircraft but she and other
crews were never told about the risks from breathing contaminated air on aircraft.
After her injuries sustained as an airline pilot, Susan completed 1/2 Ironman
triathlons and became the first Australian to receive a British Citizen Award for her
work in aviation safety.
Last year, a rose named the “Dr. Susan Michaelis Rose” was launched by Harkness
Roses at the Chelsea Flower Show. Susan has appeared or been portrayed in
numerous documentaries and films. She will be greatly missed.
Next Monday, 14th July, Tristan and Lobular Moon Shot Project campaigners
including: Alison Livingstone, Kate Ford, Katie Swinburne, Kirstin Spencer and Sarah
Ramsay Smith will meet with Wes Streeting and Ashley Dalton to discuss if Wes
Streeting will action the will of the majority of MPs and fund this vital five-year
Lobular Breast Cancer Research Project.
Campaigners are available for interview before and after the meeting.
Date/Time: Monday 14th July, 5:15pm-5:45pm
Address: Department of Health and Social Care, 39 Victoria Street, London,
SW1H 0EU
Media Contact:
Kate Ford
kate@jumppr.tv
Harkness Roses - ‘Dr. Susan Michaelis Rose’
Thank you. x
