TWO years ago Wangaratta’s Yvonne Richards and her daughter Lizzie did the Mother’s Day Classic in Melbourne to raise money for breast cancer research.
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Little did they know Yvonne would be diagnosed with that very disease within 18 months.
The registered nurse had no family history of breast cancer and hadn’t been feeling out of the ordinary.
“You never think it can happen to you,” she said.
Yet one in eight Australian women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime and 44 women are expected to be diagnosed every day in 2016.
Mrs Richards said she was very matter-of-fact about her diagnosis, heartened by the ever-improving cure rate due to research and targeted treatment.
With her husband Brett and Lizzie by her side, Mrs Richards had surgery and is halfway through chemotherapy.
She said her employer North East Health had gone over and above to support her.
“It’s not a journey, I hate that word, it’s an adventure,” she said.
“Everyone in life has hurdles to cross – it’s how we jump the hurdles, where we get advice, who picks us up when we fall, that can make a big difference to our adventure.”
Lizzie’s call on Facebook for friends to join Team Von in the Mother’s Day Classic in Wangaratta recruited 60 members ranging in age from five months to 80.
A member of HCF, Mrs Richards got on board Walk With Us, which is a partnership between Australia’s largest not-for-profit health insurer and the National Breast Cancer Foundation to raise funds for breast cancer research. Team Von signed up to Team HCF, meaning for every registered person HCF will donate $100 and $10 for every selfie tagged #walkwithus* to NBCF.
On Friday the Wangaratta walk was postponed due to forecast adverse weather.
“I was a little disappointed at first but we’ve still raised a lot of money,” Mrs Richards said.
Mother’s Day Classics will be held in Wodonga, Katamatite and Tocumwal. Walks in Corowa and Wagga were also cancelled on Friday.
