Bringing care closer to home
For people living with myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, every minute counts. Yet every week patients spend hours travelling for a treatment that is administered in seconds. It is a burden Hayley Beer is determined to ease. Supported by the Nicole King Scholarship, Hayley is completing a PhD at the University of Melbourne, developing a national roadmap to help people with myeloma safely self-inject at home.
Hayley has worked in oncology nursing for years. Building a career across the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, she implemented a self-injection program that reduced hospital visits by 75 per cent, easing pressure on cancer units and giving patients back their time and autonomy.
Despite the success of the program, other centres have struggled to implement similar models. That challenge became the focus of Hayley’s research.
In 2024 she commenced a Master of Philosophy in Graduate Research at the University of Melbourne to examine the barriers to broader adoption. She has since transitioned to a PhD, co-designing strategies for national uptake with the goal of developing a roadmap to expand access, particularly for rural and regional patients who currently travel hours each week for treatment.
“A lot of what we’re doing is unpicking all these restrictions that have been placed upon access to medicines that don’t make sense for best responses and treatment for patients.”
But transforming healthcare systems takes time and money – as does balancing a PhD with work and family. Hayley admits there were moments of uncertainty: “I didn’t know how I was going to sustain the rest of my PhD financially.”
That changed when she was awarded the Nicole King Scholarship. Established through a gift in Will by Alfred King, the scholarship provides support for students undertaking graduate research in cancer and palliative care nursing. The scholarship honours Alfred’s daughter Nicole, a Department of Nursing lecturer at the University of Melbourne and a clinical educator at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, whose life was tragically cut short by cancer in her 30s.
For Hayley – who coincidentally started her career under her maiden name, King – receiving the scholarship felt deeply personal.
“Colleagues would often see notes signed ‘King’ and say, ‘Oh! I thought Nicole was back!’ – then share warm memories of her time as an educator.
“I never met her, but from what I hear, she was a fierce advocate for nursing and it felt symbolic to be able to apply for the scholarship and then be awarded it. To know that she had such an impactful career that is still providing impact years beyond her death, and that her dad has continued her legacy – it's pretty amazing."
I am deeply grateful for Nicole’s contributions to cancer nursing and to her family for continuing her legacy in such a meaningful way.
The scholarship has allowed Hayley to focus on her research, attend conferences, publish open-access findings and bridge a funding gap as she applies for major grant support to complete the final phases of the study.
“It’s a big relief. It feels almost like a safety net, or a security blanket that, when the time comes, I’ll be able to communicate this roadmap.”
As Hayley knows, time matters. “The longer it takes me to get this out there, the more patients will miss out.”
While her focus is currently myeloma, the impact of her work will stretch far beyond a single cancer.
“Even though I’m focusing on one cancer at the moment, there’s so many subcutaneous medicines for all sorts of disease that this will work for. So the plan is to operationalise it beyond myeloma.”
Through Alfred’s generosity and Hayley’s work, Nicole King continues to make an impact – not just in memory, but in action, helping patients spend less time in hospital and more time where it matters most.
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