Dear Family and Friends, 

I have decided to make a difference by taking part in the ‘You Are Beautiful’ Fundraising Photographic Exhibition to raise funds for Cancer Support WA. Cancer Support WA helps individuals and families dealing with Cancer by providing support services and the only 24 hour Cancer Support phone line in Australia.

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL is a unique photographic exhibition and book project celebrating the life and stories of people touched by cancer. Organised by Cancer Support WA in partnership with master photographer Janet Craig and other sponsors, the purpose of You are Beautiful is to bring awareness to the untold stories of people with cancer, and to raise funds for Cancer Support WA.

Through here you can easily support my efforts by sponsoring my portrait, by making a secure donation online. I would also really appreciate it if you could share my page above or comment below so more people know about it.

Click 'Donate Now' to make a secure online donation. 

All donations over $2 are tax deductible and you will be issued with a DGR receipt via email as soon as you make a donation, which can be used at Tax time.

Cancer Support WA is hoping to raise $200,000.00. Your donation will help us reach this goal and the images will be displayed in a public exhibition in 2016. Details of the exhibition will be emailed to you closer to the date.

Please find below the story behind image and my decision to take part in this campaign.

Thank you for your support!

MY STORY

At the end, there is only love
 

Last year, my dad participated in the 'You Are Beautiful' campaign and his photo was a stunning but rather pensive-looking photo of my very humour-filled father. I adored the photo, but still managed to make fun of him for looking so serious. That’s just the way we are – my humour is entirely from my dad and half the time other people don’t even realise we're making a joke until you get to know us.

My dad lost his humour for a brief period after his wife, Dayna, passed away from breast cancer in 2008. It was one of the scariest things in the world to me; I was terrified my dad had changed forever and he’d never get his humour back. I stayed with him every weekend for a number of weeks after my stepmum died and in amongst my worry about him and my own grief, I vividly remember thinking, “What if his humour never comes back?” But luckily, my dad eventually returned to the crazy loon I love, despite all that he went through.  My dad’s ability to cope with the death of his wife constantly inspires me, even almost six years later. The first thing I ever remember my stepmum and I bonding over was our shared love of astrology. For my 13^th birthday, not long after we met for the first time, she had my full astrological chart done for me and it’s something I treasure to this day. This is the 'notebook' I am holding in my photo.

Someone that understood my sense of humour quite early on after we met was one of my friends at work. I was a little nervous of Sean when I first started working at my current workplace, because he was an experienced paediatric audiologist and I was a new graduate trying to fumble my way around learning what I was doing. But it didn’t take long for me to realise how much we could make each other laugh and the fun we had doing paediatric assist appointments together. When Sean was diagnosed with terminal bile duct cancer last year, he was never well enough to return to work, but we started having these incredible conversations you can only really have with someone who is dying. I regularly tried to tell him how inspirational he was in his work and his ability to live life to the fullest by travelling to all these awesome places, but he always brushed it off with his genuine modesty. Sean was a superhero of an audiologist to me and to many other audiologists that worked with him over the years. His ability to keep his sense of humour during all that he went through was (and still is) inspirational to me. I often worried about contacting Sean too much after his diagnosis or saying the wrong thing, but the last time I saw him he said something about how well I’d “reacted” and supported him and I don’t think he had the slightest idea how much that meant to me. It’s one of the things that has helped me in the months since he passed away in February.

I think the most important thing when you have a friend or family member who has cancer or is grieving the death of a loved one is just to be there – and to worry less about saying the wrong thing, because that is infinitely better than saying nothing at all. Lack of acknowledgement or cutting off contact altogether is the most hurtful thing for someone at a time when all they need is love and support. I would never have gotten through all that I have in my life without the love and support of my mum, dad, brother, stepmum, and a few amazing best friends. I also can't imagine being the person I am today without some of my favourite books and music. (Special mention goes to The Offspring, for everything, and to Alkaline Trio, for writing the lyric that I have included at the beginning of this 'story'.)

Dayna and Sean inspire me every day to do the things I love: Dayna always had faith in my ability to write and to become someone that would make a difference despite all the medical issues I had growing up, while Sean’s legacy continues to inspire me every day at work by being one of the most incredible paediatric audiologists I’ve ever had the privilege to work with, learn from, and call my friend.