Three generations of one family, from a 91-year-old matriarch to her two-year-old great-grandson, will be part of the Doreen Relay for Life walk, but it’s the missing generation that has them motivated.
Team Heather is raising money for the Cancer Council in honour of
Heather Wilkie, who died the day after her 60th birthday two years ago.
Wilkie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2009, but after
chemotherapy and surgery was declared cancer-free in March, 2011.
However, a few months later it was back with a cruel vengeance.
“Mum was a fighter and even though she was riddled with cancer
and it was inoperable, we as a family were in denial and believed she
would pull through,” says her daughter, Kylie Davis, 31.
Radiation perforated her bowel and this time Wilkie
told her family “no more”, but she wanted to see her second grandchild
before she died, so Davis was induced at 37 weeks.
“Mum got a chance to meet my son Joshua; family is
what she lived for. She said she had no regrets and that her life began
when she had my younger sister Erin and I; we completed her,” Davis
says.
“She held her grandson and had a chance to say goodbye to him and to her granddaughter, my daughter, Emily.”
Wilkie was in hospital after surgery in November, 2009, when Davis
gave birth to Emily in the same hospital and took the newborn to see
her proud grandmother.
She held the newborn Joshua in September, 2011, and then went home and enjoyed her family for another two months before she died.
“I know doing the Relay for Life won’t bring my mum back, but
we’re doing it to help stop any family going through what we have.
Cancer can strike anyone,” Davis says.
Wilkie’s grandchildren and her mother, Marge Mills, 91, will don the event’s trademark purple T-shirts.
Although she uses a walking frame, Mills is determined to complete her part in the 21-hour overnight event.
“It’s so wrong to lose a child; so wrong that we the elderly are allowed to live instead of the young ones,” she says.
This is the second Doreen Relay for Life organised by local Linda
Mancino, whose mother died 23 years ago. The inaugural event raised
more than $171,000, and Mancino hopes to better that this year.
» Doreen Relay For Life will be held at the Laurimar
Reserve from 12.45pm, Saturday, September 14, to 10am the next day. It
features fund-raising activities with Peppa Pig for youngsters. Call
1300 656 585 or visit relayforlife.org.au
