Kahla Gardoll’s Experience Shows the Real Cost of Rural Cancer Care
When Kahla Gardoll was diagnosed with leukaemia at 20, she didn’t just lose her health, she lost her ability to live at home.
Within days of her diagnosis on September 9, 2023, Kahla was forced to relocate more than 300 kilometres from Peterborough to Adelaide to begin lifesaving treatment at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. What was meant to be medical care became a two-year separation from her community, her support network, and any sense of normal life.
To add insult to injury, she spent her 20th and 21st birthdays in hospital.
“It was isolating,” Kahla says. “I hated every moment of it.”
What Rural Cancer Care Looks Like in Reality
Between September 2023 and September 2025, Kahla spent more time in Adelaide receiving treatment than she did at home. Chemotherapy left her severely immunocompromised. If something went wrong, doctors needed to administer medication within two hours. From Peterborough, that response time simply does not exist.
“If I needed to see a doctor,” Kahla says, “it’s impossible without going all the way to Jamestown.”
Returning home between treatment rounds was not an option. Distance turned cancer care into long-term exile.
Instead, Kahla stayed at the Cancer Council Lodge in Adelaide, supported through the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme. Her Aunty Katrina relocated with her to provide care, while also trying to support family back home.
“If she was with one of us, she was worrying about the other,” Kahla says. “It was really tough on her.”
For much of her treatment, Kahla was unaware she could access further PATS support for transport costs. She learned about it through other patients staying at the Lodge.
“It should be advertised better,” she says. “Not everyone is lucky enough to meet someone who tells them about it.”
In February 2025, after months of searching, Kahla was matched with a stem cell donor from the United States and underwent a transplant, followed by another eight weeks in hospital.
She is now in remission. But distance continues to shape her recovery, her finances, and her future.
Ongoing maintenance treatment requires Kahla to travel to Adelaide every six weeks, spending six days away from home each time. She remains unable to work and is ineligible for Centrelink support, leaving a significant financial gap alongside the emotional toll.
What Kahla wants people to understand about rural health care is simple.
“Country people exist,” she says. “We’re out here, and we’re struggling.”
She talks about the future, about family, and about building a life in the community she loves. But the barriers remain.
“More doctors. More accessibility. Information people can actually find,” Kahla says. “Because you still deserve medical care – no matter where you live.”
This is the fifth story in the From Here to Healthcare series, a grassroots storytelling initiative led by Alex Thomas and supported by Greater SA. The series shares real experiences from country South Australians to show how access to healthcare changes lives and outcomes, based on postcode alone.
Want more South Aussie stories like this? Subscribe here for free
