In 1962 at the age of 21, Renée was involved in a serious car accident that kept her in an English hospital - in a 40-bed geriatric ward - for nearly two years.
Breast cancer is a diagnosis heard all too often these days at 13,000 diagnoses a year in Australia.
I'd survived the traumas of a major motor car accident, the ignominity of a prostatectomy, and the despair and exasperation of three separate cancers and their harsh therapies, but nothing had prepared me for the greatest challenge of my life, dealing with chronic pain
I was an advisory teacher when I suffered a spinal injury in 2007 that landed me in a Brisbane hospital emergency department.Thanks to a neurosurgeon, I regained the use of my left leg and the crushing pain eased. 
It happened on 28 August 2008 at 8.28am. Everything after that is a bit of a blur, but the moment the accident happened will be stuck in my memory forever.
6 when I was 17. Unrelated to any incident, I began to experience extreme back pain. I later discovered it was a degenerative disease with no cure, but at the time I thought it could just be 'fixed'.
I had two major cycling accidents in the 1980s which caused a spinal fracture and severe whiplash.I quickly got over the accidents and was fine until the early 1990s when I started to have migraines. This gradually progressed to daily migraines by 1996.
My problems started in the early 1980s with the introduction of computers in most public service departments.In 1986,
September 23, 2006 was a beautiful, still, sunny autumn day.I was in the UK to visit my elderly mother and other family members and had taken the train to London to visit a friend.
Before my accident, about six years ago, I worked at a prestige car dealership in Brisbane. This work was physically demanding as well as being quite social. We all had to get on well as it could be quite a pressured environment and humour often kept us going.
I was nine years old when I damaged the ligaments in my left leg in a hurdling accident.After a year of treatment my leg hadn't healed – in fact the pain had worsened and I was diagnosed with chronic regional pain syndrome. 
Harry Perkins, son of Olympic champion swimmer and Painaustralia Director Kieren Perkins OAM, was diagnosed with chronic migraine at the tender age of eleven.
I woke up one morning in 1988 with a sore back.As the pain continued to increase, I consulted my general practitioner who referred me to an orthopedic surgeon. After some tests, I was told that there were no problems and that the pain should go away. It didn't.
That Friday in June 1990 began like any other Friday – two adults, three teenagers, family pets, all heading out. I was totally unaware that this was the day "Super Mum" would die and life as I knew it would be over.
My first taste of pain and injury was when I was only three years old.We had a car accident and I had my lower lumbar joints damaged as well as whiplash injuries to my neck. No one knew this at the time, though, and by the time I was nine I was having X-rays on my back to find out why I was in so much pain.
It was during a long jump attempt at my school's athletics try-outs when I was nine that I first hurt myself.As usual, I ran and jumped but as I hit the sand I felt pain in what I thought was my ankle.
My injury happened over two days – August 30-31, 2001 – when I was asked to reorganise the office's new filing system.
"Fortunately", the pain from my neck injury was so severe that it was taken seriously from the start.
I first incurred a serious back injury at work in 1985. It was not able to be evidence-based for five years (at the time of surgery).
I injured my neck in 1993 while attending a Scout Jamboree in Canada as a carer for a child with cerebral palsy.My pain symptoms didn't really show up until 1997 when I started getting lots of neck and arm pain. 
Symantha: Chronic migraines
As a chronic migraine sufferer I've lived with pain since I was a small child. With the help of sub-occipital electrodes and an implanted pulse generator (IPG implant) I can now manage my daily pain and rely less on heavy medications.
Before that though, I not only had to fight the regular horrendous pain but also the feeling that I was a terrible wife, a failure as a mother and a worthless person because some days I gave up; the pain was too great. It is very humiliating being an unproductive member of the community.
Migraines can come at the worst possible times. One of these was when my husband, Kieren, won gold in the 1500m freestyle at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics against the odds. All I can remember thinking is "Oh God, my head is going to explode" and I was about to vomit on national television.
Three years ago, our 11-year-old son, Harry, was also diagnosed with migraine. There is nothing more gut-wrenching than watching your child in severe pain. I am determined that my son will not face the same battle I've experienced to get adequate and helpful pain treatment.
So I urge the Australian Government to stop ignoring persistent pain, not just for the terrible toll pain has on sufferers but also for the economic cost of $34 billion a year. We need more pain clinics and better education among doctors and other health professionals on how to recognise and treat persistent pain."
Waiting lists for the few pain clinics that do exist nationwide are so long that many GPs have given up recommending these to their patients who need immediate care for often crippling physical and mental pain symptoms. There is simply no place to go for many persistent pain sufferers and the repercussions are often felt by the patient's whole family. It's very easy for the physical pain to worsen and for a patients' mental state to decline, with depression a very likely result for every day access to specialist care is denied.
Sadly, it's been my experience throughout my life to be sent from hospital to hospital because the overworked emergency department doctors have neither the expertise nor the time to treat a patient with a complex pain condition like me. Many doctors have never even heard of an IPG - the life changing device similar to a pacemaker that was implanted into my body three years ago to help with my daily battle against pain. This is never a good start.
Persistent pain sufferers also have to fight frequent prejudice within the medical system, stemming from a lack of knowledge by many doctors and other medical staff of pain conditions and the revolutionary treatments readily available in other countries. Most patients like me can accept their pain but not a doctor who refuses to treat persistent symptoms.
The government must direct more funds towards medical training and the development of specialised clinics if the five million Australians who suffer persistent pain ever have a hope at leading normal, productive lives.
Persistent pain has crippled me many times throughout my life. If not for the ground-breaking work and bedside compassion of Professor Michael Cousins and his team at RNSH I might not be here today. It makes me very sad to think that other Australians will continue to suffer because they have no access to pain treatment. The government can no longer ignore such a vital medical issue, after all lives are at stake."