Katherine’s Cancer Care Fund

We are Katherine, Kirsty and Tanya. 18 years ago our paths crossed on Hamilton Island whilst working at the kid’s club. We were blessed to find a fun, supportive, loving friendship in each other and as Island life goes, these friendships became more like that of a family and continue to this day. For that, we are forever grateful.

(Back L-R: Kirsty, Katherine, Tania, Jayne, Mel. Front L-R: Trish and Tanya. Hamilton Island Kids Club staff celebrating the end of the year on South Molle Island)

Katherine is our sister.

(Tanya, Jayne, Katherine, Kirsty and Kerryn, on Katherine’s wedding day)

(Kirsty, Summer and Katherine, Marley and Tanya, baby Frankie in Tanya’s belly! A precious catch-up in Melbourne. Finally meeting each other’s children.)

18 months ago, Katherine felt a lump in her breast. She was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer, aggressive cancer that is difficult to treat. After 12 months of intense treatment including chemo, surgery and radiation, Katherine returned to her Dr to get the final ‘all clear’ so she could return to work as a Kindergarten Teacher. A job she loves and her passion for shines through in every conversation and interaction with every child she teaches. Katherine felt good and was ready to get back on with living life to its full potential. She had new goals and aspirations, determined not to waste a second. Devastatingly, Katherine didn’t get the ‘all clear’, instead, she was told the cancer had spread throughout her body and her treatment options were limited.

Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) occurs in around 12% of breast cancers. It is not stimulated to grow from exposure to the female hormones, nor through an overactive HER2 pathway. Unfortunately, many available and effective treatment options for the majority of breast cancers block the growth effects of these hormones. This is what makes TNBC so difficult to treat. It also is an aggressive type of cancer and is often diagnosed at a more advanced stage. TNBC proportionately affects younger women more often than other breast cancers, and sadly many young mums, mums like Katherine, are faced with the devastating diagnosis of a terminal illness.

Katherine has a loving husband, Aaron and a beautiful daughter, Summer. Katherine and Aaron met against the beautiful backdrop of Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies, where they were both combining work, travel and adventure. Their paths crossed and from that moment on they would never be apart again. Following their time in Lake Louise, they set off on their next adventure to London. Here, we were all reunited once again as we nannied and explored the UK and all that Europe has to offer. We will treasure those memories always.

Life, however, hasn’t always been smooth sailing. In 2011, Katherine’s sister was diagnosed with terminal Bowel Cancer, she was just 30 years old. Naturally, Katherine needed to return to Australia urgently to be with her and their family. Their desire to start a family was also filled with challenges. After many years, including unsuccessful IVF, they finally welcomed their precious daughter, Summer. Summer was born at 34 weeks and remained in NICU for 6 weeks until she was well enough to go home. As a result of her premature birth, Summer has faced many obstacles. Fortunately for her, she has been blessed with loving, caring, dedicated parents. Summer will continue to meet challenges throughout her life and Katherine is determined to be by her side for as long as she can be.

Aaron has worked tirelessly to provide for his family, whilst supporting his wife and daughter through this devastating diagnosis and treatment. Katherine has been fighting for her life, together with her husband, researching every potential cure, combining both Western Medicines with integrated cancer care. In addition, Katherine has continued to care for her daughter and provided her with the additional support needed.

(Aaron, Katherine & Summer)

We are Katherine’s sisters, supporting her in the absence of her sister, Leanne, who sadly died from cancer 10 years ago. Leanne was not only Katherine’s sister but also her best friend. She is thought of and missed every day.

(Tanya, Katherine and Kirsty on a recent, precious girls catch up in Vict. Just after we had learnt of Katherine’s cancer spreading.)

(Leanne & Katherine)

Katherine is blessed to have loving and supportive parents, Elizabeth & Laurie and a brother, Daniel, as well as sister-in-law, Jessica and her nephew, Lucas. Katherine and her family’s lives have been impacted by cancer for over 10 years now. With the initial shock diagnosis and death of her sister Leanne, to her sister-in-law Jessica’s cancer diagnosis and now her own. Their story seems unbelievable for any one family to endure, however, sadly it has been their reality. Katherine and her family’s strength and courage through each of these cancer diagnoses have been nothing short of inspirational. For those of you who know them, you already know how beautiful, fun, kind, caring and nurturing they are and how blessed we are to have them in our lives. For those of you who don’t, we hope you can imagine the type of family they are. They are all about family, friends and supporting their community. We now want to reciprocate their care and support and hope you will join us.

(Joe, Leanne, Elizabeth, Laurie, Jessica, Daniel, Aaron and Katherine)

Katherine’s goal is to stop her tumours from growing and live as normal a life as possible, for as long as possible. To be there to support, nurture and watch her daughter grow up, to be a wife, daughter, and sister, to us all.

Katherine has been unable to work for over 18 months now & has incurred many additional expenses, specifically the integrated therapies and treatment that don’t come cheap but have certainly appeared to make a positive impact. In addition, interest rates have increased as well as the general cost of living. Katherine has just started a clinical trial which requires weekly trips to Melbourne, yet more expense. By creating this ‘gofundme’ page, we are hoping to ease the financial burden on Katherine and Aaron, so they can focus all their time and energy on living every moment to its full potential, as a family.

Words of support to Katherine and her family are as important to them as financial support. Positivity and hope are getting them through each day and on days where it wavers, we hope your words can reignite it for them.

Up until now, Katherine has chosen to keep this very private, to protect her family and her mental health. We apologise as we know that this will come as a shock for many of you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, share words of support, donate, and share amongst your networks to further the reach and support for Katherine and her family.

Love Katherine’s Sisters,

Tanya & Kirsty xx

(Kirsty, Katherine & Tanya)