Dear Family and Friends,

Please help raise funds to give others the gift of a lifetime - make a donation towards this beautiful glass photographic portrait of myself by world-renowned portrait and fashion photographer Robbie Merritt - and support the work of an incredible local charity who helped me many years ago when I was first diagnosed with cancer - Cancer Support WA.

With gratitude and love,

Thank you,

Dr. Joanne Samer

My Story: The Cancer Journey - Dr Joanne Samer

My journey with cancer started in June 1996. I was married with a beautiful 2 and a half year old son and most mornings we went to Beatty Park Pool to swim with a couple of other friends with children the same age. This particular morning I swam alone and after taking my shower I noticed a lump in my neck - not at all worrying as thyroid lumps are common, particularly in women. In typical fashion, later that day, I consulted my colleague in the corridor in between patients and he thought it needed to be biopsied. The following day, I fronted up to have a bunch of needles stuck in my neck to get some tissue from the lump and then went back to work. It was a Friday and about 1.30pm, in between patients, I received a phone call from the specialist to advise me that I had Medullary Thyroid cancer. I had never heard of it before and I am a doctor! As they say, the next 10 days is history and a total blur. I picked up the phone to the front desk, told the girls I could not work for the rest of the day and it was another 18 months before I returned to work. Suffice to say I was totally, completely and utterly gutted – the shock reduced me to a blithering mess of tears.

Over the next 10 days, I had a bunch of tests done to find out if the tumour could make an anaesthetic risky and to see if it was a genetically inherited tumour – which thankfully it was not! I then had surgery to remove the tumour and a bunch of lymph nodes which were subsequently found to contain the tumour. So now what? My life was a mess....my husband, my parents, my sisters and all our extended families had no idea how to handle this. There was no text book written on how to live with cancer that we had to study at medical school. Furthermore, this tumour could not be treated with either chemotherapy or radiotherapy – it was unresponsive to both, so now what?

I have always been interested in the more fringe aspects of medicine and holistic healing so it was a natural step for me to start exploring what to do next. At the time, my marriage was on shaky ground and I felt we needed help. I came across a course called The Turning Point – a weekend long intensive experience that involved sessions on psychology, body work and meditation. It took us from one place to another and out the other side and left me feeling empowered about myself and the cancer. The most profound aspect was that I came to understand why I had become sick. I believe that the body manifests disease as a result of a combination of both physical and emotional triggers and mine was all emotional. I had been very unhappy for quite some time and in fact, I had begun questioning my life to the point that I was silently muttering to myself that I would rather be dead than doing this, but my son and the desire to see my grandchildren grow up was too powerful to let such thoughts take hold. They did however present me with the opportunity, should I want it – “Here Joanne – here’s dose of cancer. You want it? It’s yours! Take it and have your wish!”

Once I realised how powerful my mind was and that I could manifest anything if I so choose, it all became that much easier. The first thing I did was to forgive myself for getting sick - a big thing to do and one that holds enormous power. Understanding my body and how it speaks to me when things are not right has been a great lesson that now, some nearly 20 years later, I still value and use every day of my life. I have learned to listen and honour it whenever is speaks to me. I made huge changes in my life like ending my marriage, moving close to the ocean where the air is cleaner and the sea breeze blows away all the allergens that drive me crazy and working close to home so that I could be there for my son. If he was home, so was I as much as possible – living with guilt about being an absent parent was not worth it. Better to have other hardships than that one I decided.

The next step I took was to pay a visit to what was then The Cancer Support Association, now Cancer Support WA. Ross Taylor, the president at the time, offered to babysit my son so I could attend the centre and the services it offered. I was and remain eterenally grateful for the love and support I received through the variety of actitives I took part in. I was motivated to sing again, the art therapy I created is still in my cupboard holding great significance for me and the counsellling was so helpful. I went on to work with Ross spreading the CSA message and to this day, some of the people I met remain a part of my  life in some way.

These huge lessons in life did not come easily. In 1991 I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis – which took me away from work for 3 months until I could use my right hand properly again. You would think, I would have figured it all out then and learned to manage myself a bit better but I am a slow learner and it was not till the cancer appeared that I figured it out – thank goodness. Of course, sometimes life can be a bit busy and stressful and overwhelming and I went through an intense period from 2003 till 2007 when I was working hard and very stressed though enjoying the challenge never the less. I had been checking on the tumour regularly and watching the blood test slowly creep up. My doctors were not concerned but I knew my body well enough to know that I was cutting things a bit too fine. In the middle of 2007, after a particularly stressful and emotional day at work, I had the proverbial dummy spit and said “no more”... it was time to take stock of my life once again and not let this cancer get the better of me. I knew I needed to face further surgery but there was no rush, so after 5 months of rest and recovery and moving house and selling businesses and a whole bunch of other things, I had a radical neck dissection - a procedure that basically took everything possible out of the right hand side of my neck, and sure enough there were four more lymph nodes that had the cancer in them. I had done the right thing! But the bad news was that the surgeon never wanted to go back inside my neck again – it would be a disaster if he had to. So it was all over to me again.

One further event in 2009 really slammed home for me the lessons about my health that I needed to learn. I had my second ever episode of MS. It came in the context of my relationship at that time ending and I was very distressed by that fact that my partner left me for his career – something that to this day I find hard to understand. Fortunately the MS did not stop me working this time, but it did take me down the path of investing more in myself. I went to the Gawler retreat for 10 days in Victoria and got my head around how critical things like diet and peace of mind are to one’s health. I had always known it, but this just really bought it home for me.

So, what have I learned? I have learned that stress is a killer for me. I have learned that I need a quiet lifestyle that is filled with as much joy and laughter as possible. I have learned to put me first and to think differently about things. I have learned to only look forward and never back. I have learned that I need to eat well, take my vitamins, sleep well, exercise every day and to love and be loved. Being loved is crucial – it is not good enough to fudge it or fake it or pretend that it’s there when maybe it isn’t. I need to have people close to me who love me for being me. Of course, the lessons in life never stop and we can never get it perfect but being open and continually learning and accepting and embracing what we have is the essence of living well with cancer.

My favourite sayings in life:

Life is to be lived.

I don’t do stress anymore!

Nothing ventured, nothing gained....