Sharon, 58 years

Told with love by her children; Kimble, Angel & Courtney

I remember teasing Mum because she’d started gaining a bit of weight around her middle and had been complaining of strained tummy muscles, Mum assumed it was from overdoing it in the garden. 

Mum was diagnosed on the 9th May 2003, the day that our lives changed forever.  From that date we never took a minute with her for granted.  What a terrible wake up call.   We’d never even heard of “ovarian cancer”, those were the only symptoms Mum had and like so many other women the cancer had spread by the time they found it.

Mum endured a radical hysterectomy and 6 chemo treatments, and then we had 18 blissful months of remission,  Mum was able to celebrate her children getting married, and witnessed the arrival of precious grandchildren.

Then it came back.  It’s amazing that when your in the midst of this cancer journey, any tiny glimmer of hope is celebrated… we remember when her CA125 number got down to 220, we jumped for joy, and just 12 months earlier we cried our hearts out because it was 70! 

In all, our beautiful Mum had 4 years and 9 months of living with this terrible disease; she bravely fought it every step of the way.  The worst day of our lives became; February 11 2008.  The strength that our Mum displayed throughout her entire ordeal is an absolute inspiration to her family and friends.  To us she was, and will always be the bravest woman in the universe…. “Don’t sweat the small stuff” was Mum’s advice, after cancer has touched your life, you seem to get a better perspective on any other little problems that arise.

We all miss her desperately every day and now whenever we see a dragonfly, we know that she’s sending us a message to let us know she’s still watching over us and is still in our lives, just not physically.  

In April, I got a  Silver Ribbon tattooed on my wrist, so that whenever someone asks what its for, I can tell them about my Mum and I can raise awareness for women to get appropriate check ups.