I’m helping to beat blood cancer by taking part in the Leukaemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave!
My Grandma lost her battle to leukaemia on the 27th of March 2004.
To me, she was the perfect Grandma.
I am so lucky to have incredible childhood memories with her. I was 13 years old when she passed, old enough to understand cancer and death. Old enough to understand the heartbreak of losing her. Knowing I would never get to hug her again, hear her infectious laugh, help her cook, watch her put on her bright red lippy, sit around the table with all the family and friends she gathered around to eat a delicious meal and talk into the night with a 'kids glass of wine' that I now know was a port glass.
It is only since signing up to the shave that I've really thought about how life could have been if she hadn't been taken too soon. I look back on moments of my life and wonder what I would have learnt from Grandma in those key moments and what other memories I should have been able to make with her.
Since I signed up I have heard so many stories from so many people in my network. I had no idea how common this cancer is and how it doesn't discriminate against age.
With no screening programs available and no means of prevention through lifestyle changes, blood cancer is Australia's hidden cancer crisis.
Every day, 53 Aussies are diagnosed with blood cancer, and 16 will lose their life.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed weather financially, sharing posts, offering words and acts of support…