How being a cancer survivor changed my life

My Story

Getting cancer at 21 was definitely not in my life plan. It was a curveball bigger than anything else I have experienced. It changed my way of thinking, and it made me who I am today.

In 2004 I was living in Perth after qualifying from my hairdressing apprenticeship. I was doing a 6 month course in Makeup Artistry. About five months into my new life, I started to get a sore rib on my left side. It slowly got worse until I found it was waking me up at night and I was having trouble sleeping on that side. I eventually went to the Dr and she could feel the lump and decided we needed to investigate further. She wrote me a form for an ultrasound. I tried a few places with no luck and put it on the backburner. Once I had finished my course, I started thinking about moving home to Esperance.

Once the decision was made to go home, I booked into get the ultrasound in Esperance. The test came back as nothing. I remember getting grumpy at how rough she was, and the end verdict was you might have cracked a rib from sneezing. I settled back into my life back at home.

Months went by and I went back to the Dr numerous times. I saw two different Drs, I had Xray’s and blood tests with no outcome. In November that year I saw a locum Dr. He decided that as it was getting worse, and it was time to investigate further. I started to think I was going crazy and there was nothing wrong with me. A friend and I went to Kalgoorlie which was the closest scanner. Weirdly enough I was so excited when they found something, and I wasn’t making it up. I had to get extra dye put into me to try and identify what it was.

Back in Esperance I went to my Dr and got the news that started my journey to being diagnosed. “We think you have osteosarcoma. But it is very rare and normally presents in legs or arms, not the ribs.” He couldn’t answer any of my questions until I had more tests. They needed me in Perth by the following Monday. At the time I was more annoyed that I would miss my best friend's 21st as the drive to Perth is 7 hours and my appointment was first thing Monday morning.

My boyfriend Dale, Mum and sister Kirst all drove up to Perth leaving at 10pm so we could go to the party. Once we got there, we had to wait nearly three hours for the Dr! Don’t get me started on the hospital organization! He told me I would need chemo and they needed to do a MRI and a PET scan to check if it had spread through my body. Then followed by a biopsy to get more information. We went into auto pilot over a couple of weeks juggling different appointments and scans.

The PET scans and MRI came back that it was localized to the left rib which was great news. Then after the biopsy came back non conclusive, they changed their mind and said you don’t have cancer. They thought it was benign but still wanted to remove the tumor. We celebrated that it was going to be ok, but I still felt strange.

The morning of my surgery I was an anxious mess. Still coming to terms with the chaos of the last two weeks. While waiting the nurse gave me a tablet which I think was valium. I chilled out and waited to be taken into surgery. My orthopedic surgeon came in to see me with some different news. We have changed our mind again and we are not cutting out your ribs, we are doing an open biopsy because we think you have got cancer. WFT! I came out of my first surgery stressed and really sore. I had to wait for the results for what felt like weeks.

The next week we went into the Dr surgery and he left the room to take a call and came back with a box of tissues. Yep, it was cancer. I felt numb and just sat there. I didn’t cry a lot. I was in shock. It was only in one area but because Osteosarcoma is rare and aggressive, I had to start chemo the next day. Mum asked lots of questions. She asked about saving some of my eggs as the chemo I was about to start was very harsh. At the time I would have had to go over east for that procedure, so it was a hard no. That made me cry more than having cancer as I always wanted kids.

Our lives changed to appointments, needles and constant trips up and back from Perth. I was completely disconnected from my life and felt alone and scared. I had lots of friends and family, but I didn’t know many people that had been through the treatment. I searched for answers and looked for books of survivors so that I had someone to relate to. The hospital is not a “feeling” place. I became a number (I still remember my hospital number now) and if I said I wasn’t feeling good they gave me pamphlets. I knew that one day I would change this and I wanted to help other people that were going through cancer treatment.

I had just over a year of chemo and major surgery that had only been done 20 times in WA. They cut out the size of a man’s hand of my ribs. Leaving the front and back bits there, sewing them together with gauze. The scar tissue hardened and unless you squeeze me really hard you would never know. I have got a pretty wicked scar. It was a huge year. I had multiple scares, collapsed veins and many grumpy days. But through all the bad times I still tried my hardest to see light. I learnt a lot about myself and how strong I could be.

When chemo was finally finished, I had the best party ever!! It was a dress up and I made everyone have a tequila on the way in. Even my Dr and grandparents had one!

I was extremely lucky to have two kids naturally and I’m thankful every day. I had 15 years of scans and finally went into remission in 2018. On my last scan when I got the all clear my now husband Dale and I decided as we were leaving my last scan to run out of the hospital! It was so liberating!!!

As I’ve always been a planner my cancer took me off the path I had planned. It tested me in so many ways. I remember people saying to me how do you do it? I didn’t have a choice!

It gave me more determination to follow my dreams. It also gave me more anxiety and at the time I thought I was fine but now I encourage anyone going through any traumatic experience to ask for help.

I found a love for photography when some of my chemo’s didn’t make me too sick, I would go to the beach and take photos.

It gave me an awareness that I didn’t have before that life can change so quickly and you have to be thankful for what you have.

It also showed me how cruel it can be. Our chemo ward lost two patients in my time.

Overall I wouldn’t change it as it made me who I am today.

How I am going to give back

I had always thought I would write a book to share my experiences so that I could help others going through treatment. I tried when I was pregnant with my daughter and found reading my diaries too traumatic. I got an idea when I was vacuuming about 3 years ago. I’m not going to write a book, I'm going to create a website!

I have been planning it for years and now the time has come where I can bring my idea to life. I am going to build a website and share my story and other stories. It will be called Fighting Together, the Emotional Side of Cancer. It’s not for information or statistics, it is for real stories that people can relate to. The hospital offers information and pamphlets, but I still can’t find a place that shares the realness, the bad, the good and the ugly. It’s going to be personable and relatable. There are also going to be links to where you can get help. There will be a big section on help for country patients who spend lots of time traveling to the city. I want to do fundraisers to give country patients voucher packs to help with living away from home and bring awareness to the mental health of cancer patients.

My plan is to release it June 2022 to coincide with the anniversary of the Shave for a Cure event we ran 10 years ago. In 2012 we had a small group of volunteers in Esperance that had a huge fundraising event and raised $80,000. At the time we had two of our players from our footy club going through treatment. We had amazing support and it showed how much difference we could make if we worked together.