New face of hope leads state-wide relay

Proserpine’s Lulu Simpson is living proof that a cancer diagnosis can change your life.

Ms Simpson was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma when she was 4 years old. Lulu is the Face of Cancer Council Queensland’s 2012 Relay For Life, and is looking forward to taking part in the Relay For Life event which is being held at Proserpine Showgrounds on April 28 and 29.

Relay For Life Coordinator Jeff Hardie said Ms Simpson  was like many cancer survivors who wanted to give something back after cancer had changed their lives.

Surviving cancer can cause you to look at the world in a different light,” said Mr Hardie. Cancer survivors suffer not only physical but financial hardship  and that can put a big strain on families and relationships.

“Fortunately Cancer Council Queensland is here to help support individuals and their families and is able to do this through the success of fundraising events like Relay For Life.”

“Our committee is working hard to create a Relay with great entertainment.

“That Lulu is such an enthusiastic and happy young lady portrays a really good message and we are stoked that she and her family are lining up for this very important community event,” Mr Hardie said.

Ms Simpson said she realised that other people didn’t always have as good outcomes as herself.

“That’s why we have to keep supporting events like Relay for Life; to raise funds so eventually we will find a cure,” she said.

For further information, contact Cancer Council Queensland on 4842 2001 or visit www.relayforlife.org.au.

Whitsunday holiday leaves lasting impression

 Pam Ashdown plays host to a variety of interesting guests in her role as manager at Mango House Resort, but none have touched her more than stroke victim Sarah Gapp.

 Just three years ago Sarah was an active 21-year-old woman, working as a legal secretary in Brisbane, but on August 28, 2008 she suffered a massive brain stem stroke.

 On more than one occasion doctors thought Sarah might die, but she in fact lived, left with a condition known as ‘locked-in syndrome’, which only one person in 100,000 survives.

 Sarah’s mother Jane said her daughter was literally ‘locked in’ to her body, able to hear and think but physically only able to blink.

 So began a long process of rehabilitation, left largely to Jane, who never missed a day of her daughter’s care in spite of being stricken with breast cancer herself. Three years on, Sarah can now breathe independently, free-sit, take steps with a walking frame and talk - to a degree.

 Sarah’s journey to the Whitsundays dates back to her darkest days in ICU, when Jane brought various musicians to her daughter’s bedside, including Blues artist Michael Franti, who stayed in touch with the Gapp’s throughout Sarah’s remarkable road to recovery.

 This year, Michael invited Sarah and Jane to the Byron Blues Festival taking them on stage and telling their tale. In the audience was Whitsunday musician Nadine O’Neill, who had just won an accommodation prize in the Airlie Beach talent quest at Relay for Life.

 “Once I got home I had this voucher just sitting there staring me in the face,” said Nadine, who decided to offer it to the Gapp’s.

 When Pam Ashdown learned more about her guests she told them to “stay as long as you like”.

 “To me, Sarah is just an angel. This is a girl with a tracheotomy in her throat, yet when I asked her, “Did you ever feel like dying?” she said to me “I only ever felt like living”,” Pam said.

 While Sarah was in the Whitsundays she was able to make trips to the reef and Daydream Island, where she told the Guardian her favourite experience was “touching the baby shark”.

 Jane Gapp said the holiday was an extremely welcome break.

 “We spend most of our time fighting for something – everything we do takes a considerable amount of effort so just being able to get away from it all has been great,” she said.

 Sarah has a bright future with plenty more of these experiences ahead, but she needs therapy to enable her to walk independently and eat and drink.

 To learn more about Sarah’s story or make a donation visit www.developingfoundation.org.au/family/sarahgapp

Relay for Life

More than 350 people converged on the Whitsunday Sports Park last weekend to raise money for Cancer Council Queensland in a symbolic ‘Relay for Life’. A total of 20 teams walked for almost 18 hours, commencing at 3pm on Saturday afternoon and finishing shortly before 9am the next day.

 Master of Ceremonies John Powell described Saturday’s candle lighting ceremony (in remembrance of loved ones lost) as a “very moving event”.

 “There would have been at least two hundred candles around the track. It really brought the meaning of the moment home to everyone,” Mr Powell said.

 Cancer survivor and Relay for Life PR person Corrie Gardner said this was the first year she had actually participated in the event.

 “Walking all night might sound painful, but when you share it with friends it’s actually a really nice experience.

 “I just could not believe the atmosphere. It was all about friendship and warmth and supporting each other – which you don’t see enough of these days,” she said.

 Ms Gardner said through a combination of individual and team efforts almost $20,000 was raised for Cancer Council Queensland under the banner of the Relay for Life event.

 Regional fund raising co-ordinator for Cancer Council Queensland Rebecca Pascoe said this was amazing.

 “To have that many people involved in a regional area is always inspiring – there were so many young people there, and that’s one of the things we need to keep the message going,” Ms Pascoe said.