Dear family and friends,

Please help raise funds to give me the gift of my lifetime - a beautiful glass photographic portrait of myself by world-renowned portrait and fashion photographer Robbie Merritt - and support the work of an incredible local charity - Cancer Support WA.

Please show your support by sponsoring my portrait.

Thank you

Dianne Fisher

My Story

In some ways I feel like a fraud writing this as I have been the lucky one. Cancer hasn’t touched me directly in the sense that I haven’t had to fight it personally. But it has touched those around me and then indirectly I have made some life changing decisions because of it.

My story starts over 15 years ago when my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was in her early 20s and I didn’t realise that young women could possibly have to face such a diagnosis. I realise now how ignorant that is, but I was a young Mum at the time, fit and healthy, so why would I think about such things? As it was she won that battle, but this event caused us all to have a look at the family genes and we discovered that there was quite a history of breast cancer on my father’s side of the family.

With this knowledge my sister and I decided to get genetic testing and we discovered that we are both carriers of the BRCA1 gene. This gene is responsible for not only increasing the risk of contracting breast cancer, but also ovarian cancer considerably.   This news was a bitter pill as during this time we also discovered my older brother was fighting his own battle with cancer. Over a period of about 18 months I watched as my once chubby and vibrant brother wasted away to a shadow.  He fought hard, but Alan lost his battle in July 2002. I still miss him and still look for his face in a crowd.     

In 2007 my first granddaughter was born, an unexpected gift born after a very difficult year. This was my turning point, it was love at first sight for me and as any grandparent will know, the love for a grandchild is incredible and so very hard to explain. But her birth made me realise it was time to look at this gene and do what I could to minimise the risk and also have some serious conversations with my children. There was a 50% chance that my children could also have this gene. That meant that my daughter and granddaughter were also at risk. My son was also expecting his first child, so there was another issue we needed to address, especially if he had a girl.

Genetic testing is not something that can be done lightly there are many issues to be discussed before taking that step. Insurance is one of them, once tested insurance companies will not insure you, the discrimination around genetic testing is an issue for another day though. There is also the psychological effect it can have on you, counselling before and after the results are given is vital.

My daughter and I weighed up the pros and cons of being tested and her decision was to test and we were absolutely delighted and relieved to find out that she is not a carrier, this also means that her children (my granddaughter) will not be carriers either.. ...the buck stops here. My son is yet to make his own mind up about testing, he now has a baby girl, so it is something we will have to discuss at some point in the future.

In 2009 after some serious consideration and many questionable mammograms I decided to take the rather drastic step of having a bilateral mastectomy. The girls had to go! J When I weighed it all up, my breasts were posing a very large risk and it was time to remove the risk. I discussed it with the key people in my life and responses varied from “ Yep, that is the right thing to do” to “well, how ridiculous, cancer is just a negative thought, just meditate more and think positively”. I realise there is merit in all perspectives but I decided not to take the risk, I want to see my little grandchildren grow up and become teenagers (payback to my children I guess).

In my journey of discovery, I met with some very brave women who had already taken this step, even braver women fighting this disease and one very special lady who sadly lost her battle and I knew I had made the right decision for me.

The operation itself went smoothly, I had a complete reconstruction at the same time and  the results were that there was no cancerous or even precancerous cells in my breast tissue. This led to another mini – meltdown.. had I made the right decision?, was this really necessary?   I will never know, but I certainly don’t feel as if I have the big C constantly looking over my shoulder.

After the operation was the toughest time mentally, I never realised how much it would affect me, mentally and physically. I went down and came back up again and now I am very comfortable with my decision. Was it the right one? I will never really know. It was the right decision at the time and that’s all that matters.

During all this I had some wonderful support. Without it the difficulty would have been immense, I do hope that you will be inspired enough to donate towards this foundation to help others that will be needing a hand up. Together we can do so much more!

In loving memory of Alan Thomas Cray

Thank you

Dianne Fisher