Linda McSweeny

Linda McSweeny has been a journalist, editor and writer for 24 years. She has worked for national and international newswires and contributed to media including The Wall Street Journal, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Sunday Life and www.news.com.au. Her work also includes writing for the education and not-for-profit sectors.

Linda began her career as a teenager writing for her local newspaper, has worked in the regional media, in the federal parliamentary press gallery and in financial and medical media. She has a Master of Journalism from the University of Wollongong.

Linda is particularly interested in presenting evidence-based science when writing about health and wellbeing. Her work aims to help connect consumers with experts in health care via the sharing of knowledge, experience and updates on clinical practice. She has also worked in the University of NSW Media Office, promoting medical research. Linda’s interest in palliative care emerged from personal experience, when her father was a patient and died in a palliative care ward 18 years ago following a cancer diagnosis.

Why we need to act on Lymphoedema

Photo sourced from iStock The adage ‘this too shall pass’ is often used in society when we face tough times but what happens when the challenge doesn’t go away? For many people who have experienced cancer, the chronic condition lymphoedema follows and lingers. It can be debilitating and it’s incurable. What is Lymphoedema? Lymphoedema involves […]

Palliative care can be a lifeline for someone with advanced cancer

Mike Mulchrone When Michael Mulchrone learned the lung cancer he thought long gone had migrated to his brain and doctors mentioned palliative care in 2015, he was fearful of the journey ahead. A year-and-a-half later, Mike says palliative care wasn’t a […]

Conversations about choices for end of life care

Just hours before my father died peacefully in a palliative care ward, surrounded by his family, he whispered that he “didn’t think it would be like this”. We hadn’t spoken about what his death might be like when we learned he had advanced cancer, but I still wonder whether the lead-up to his death matched […]

We need to talk about death

Death can be a thorny topic to discuss, so, many people just don’t talk about it. But having the opportunity to say goodbye and spend time with family and friends when we know we are dying can impact lives immeasurably and offer some comfort and support at a time when all else may seem unbearable. […]

The practical side of the end of life can be daunting

Muppets creator Jim Henson reportedly specified that nobody should wear black at his funeral and requested jazz tunes. Big Bird sang at his public memorial and mourners heard his advice, made well before his 1990 sudden death, to “watch out for each other…love and forgive everybody…”. Many of us don’t want such fanfare in […]

End of life – you have choices for where to die

Palliative care can be a life-enriching treatment

When Michael Mulchrone learned the lung cancer he thought long gone had migrated to his brain and doctors mentioned palliative care in 2015, he was fearful of the journey ahead. A year-and-a-half later, Mike says palliative care wasn’t a “death blow” after all but a life-enriching experience. “When I was first diagnosed, I was left […]