Debbie 2007 - ‘Always for Judy’

It is now seven years later…. I am still a mother, older and hopefully wiser.

My job is simple and completely by choice. As each day ticks by I tell this story to just one more, giving someone the armour they might need when facing the ‘unknown’. It was March 2000, the year Sydney hosted her first Olympic Games, and the year ovarian cancer silently crept into our lives. With no warning, no time, this pariah slipped through the cracks of our world and then proceeded to take each of us down, one by one. Its target? My dear mother, Judy.

Two tickets for a trip to Europe with Dad, Mum was beside herself with excitement! But her bags were too quickly unpacked and re-packed for hospital where she would undergo major radical surgery to remove a tumour, which had somehow attached itself to her ovary. Had we only known the signs, they were staring us in the face, everyday, as her back ached more and her tummy swelled.

We just didn’t recognise its name, or the power it had, and by July, while Australia kicked up her heels in celebrations, my family were in sudden mourning for the silent killer had taken her. Just as quickly as it had made its presence known, it also managed to tear her from our arms.

Towards the end, mum grew silent and so too my willingness to believe that this could possibly be her end. It is only now, through my words that I am able to admit my fears. I promised my mother I would tell this story, to any who would be prepared to listen. My ‘army of words’ now tell the world so that mum’s death wouldn’t leave her as a mere statistic. Judy Burns was 63, when she lost her battle, leaving behind a very lonely husband, and two motherless daughters.

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