Christine Walters was diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer when her daughter was just a baby.
"I just remember looking at her and saying, you need to buy me more time. I literally do not care what I have to do to stay alive long enough that she will remember me," she said.
Doctors gave Christine 12 months to live. That was 10 years ago.
She counts her survival to date as a "miracle", despite not knowing how much time she has left.
Cervical cancer is caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).
Had the HPV vaccine been around when Christine was young, she believes she would have avoided her cancer diagnosis.
As a secondary teacher, Christine now encourages her students to get the jab as part of the vaccine program rollout in schools.
"They go, 'but it's a needle, Miss, it hurts'… I don't think a lot of people see that one little needle can protect you for something so significant as a cancer," she said.
"I just tell them you are so lucky to have this available to you and without it, you could end up like me."
'A reality check'
It's a timely and cautionary message with experts revealing the uptake rate of the HPV vaccination is at its worst in almost a decade, according to the most recent data.
"We're going in the wrong direction," said Frank Beard, associate director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS).
The HPV vaccine, delivered in schools, is the frontline defence in shielding the body from HPV infection.
HPV causes cervical cancer, genital, anal and oral cancers — as well as genital warts.
It's the most common sexually transmitted viral infection and about 85 per cent of people who have been sexually active will get HPV at some stage of their life.
Dr Beard said the most recent data should serve as a "reality check".
"HPV vaccine coverage has decreased year on year for the last four years so that we're now back to where we were around a decade ago," he said.
To achieve its cervical cancer elimination target, Australia needs to boost HPV vaccination coverage to at least 90 per cent of all adolescents, aged 15 years, by 2030.
"The coverage has decreased by around 6 percentage points and we're now down to around 81 per cent for teenage girls and around 78 per cent for teenage boys," Dr Beard said.
Overall, that means two in 10 adolescents have not had the vaccine by the time they should have.
[DATAWRAPPER HERE]And for First Nations teens, it is three in 10.
[SECOND GRAPH HERE]"We're not on track to meet our goals at this rate," he said.
Parents, teens urged to 'catch-up'
There are several barriers to young people getting the jab, including vaccine hesitancy and diminished accessibility, according to Megan Smith, chair of the Cancer Council's Cervical Cancer and HPV Group.
School attendance rates have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, which, in part, explains the drop in vaccine coverage.
But Associate Professor Smith said schools are not the only place to get the vaccine and if teenagers have missed out, they can "catch-up".
"You can see your GP or you can now get it at your pharmacist, it's free. We really encourage people to make the most of those opportunities," she said.
"It is challenging getting teenagers to think ahead. But we want to talk to both the teenagers and to their parents and explain to them that this is a really effective and safe vaccine."
Dr Beard said two years ago, Australia moved from two doses to a single dose of the vaccine, meaning there are now fewer chances for young people to get a catch-up jab.
He said other barriers include parents with poor literacy or English skills, which can prevent consent forms from being signed, people living in rural and remote areas and socio-economic disadvantage.
"Certainly, questions and concerns [about vaccines] are a significant part of the equation that need to be addressed in an appropriate and respectful manner," Dr Beard said.
Finding peace
Christine is encouraging parents to make sure their teenagers get the vaccine.
"I just say to everyone you need to do this for your children, it can save their life," she said.
Immunotherapy has stopped Christine's cancer from progressing for longer than experts ever thought possible.
She has so far defied her terminal diagnosis with the help of her daughter Mia, 12, husband Neil and their eight horses on their property two hours west of Brisbane.
"I will probably die from cancer and that is the reality that we live with. And we live with it every day. My daughter lives with it, my husband lives with it, our family lives with it."
And she will be making sure her daughter gets the vaccine as soon as she is eligible.
"I think giving her the vaccine is just going to give her that armour and that peace of mind that she won't have to go through what she saw her mum go through," she said.
