Michele Aitchison Kilcoy, QLD Australia Amazon Heart Thunder Australia 2006 Rider

I am Michele Aitchison, and I am 46 years old. I was born in New Zealand and immigrated here when I was 22. I have been riding bikes since I was 8 years old, although I haven’t ridden anything for the past four years. When I was 16 I was knocked off my bike by a drunk driver and almost had my leg amputated. Although I had many operations, I still persisted to become a qualified Dance teacher, and still dance and teach dance and drama to school children.

I married a lovely Australian man, and even though Doctors had told us it would be almost impossible to have children, God smiled and we had five wonderful kids. My daughter Rebecca is now 18 and my absolute buddy and best friend. My son Johnathon, is almost 17 and in his last years of school and just bursting with talent and charm, and I cannot wait to see where his life takes him. Next is Daniel, our 14 year old, who is full of drive and passion and humour and a wonderful caring human being. Then we have Grahame, 12 years old who is a little bit of a gentleman, a great sportsman, and a popular socialite. Lastly, there is Alexander who is 9 and serious about everything, who loves to learn, and loves to succeed. Five uniquely wonderful and competent human beings that have all supported me during my trials and tribulations over the past 18 months, and who got together to take up a collection among themselves to help get their mum off to this event.

When Alexander was two, I went back to University and 3 ½ years later I gained my degree in Education. I then got a job at our local primary school and worked there for three years, until in October 2004 I received the news that I had Breast Cancer. This was the day before we had the Field of Women in our local community where pink silhouettes are sponsored to raise awareness and revenue for Breast Cancer research. This made my diagnosis a public event and I was overwhelmed by the community’s response and concern. Kilcoy is a small rural town, but has a large number of women who have been affected by Breast Cancer.

When I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, the normalcy of our family life was radically invaded. My husband was thrust into the chaos of child rearing duties like cooking meals, making school lunches and bedtime routines, all of which he was totally unprepared for. Luckily for our family, our then 16 year old daughter in her last year of High School, took over and managed to keep the family functioning while I taught primary school through the day, and took myself off to radiation treatment in Brisbane, about 2 hours away from where we lived, and then back home again that night to repeat for the six weeks of treatment. And just as I finished my radiation treatment, I received the news that my Mother had also been diagnosed with Breast Cancer, and had to undergo surgery and radiation as well. Now, just as I was trying to get better, I felt the responsibility of looking after her as well.

I am still currently receiving monthly treatment in Brisbane, which will continue for another 9 months or so. While I was working and keeping busy, I was able to keep going, but at the end of the year, I was left without a job and then I found it difficult to make sense of anything. On top of this, my friend, Cindy who had been such an inspiration to me when I was first diagnosed, recently finished her own battle with Breast Cancer having survived treatments off and on for about 6 years, and her departure from our lives has left an enormous void in our small community. I want to ride for her, and for all the other women, who like me are wives, mothers and vibrant people in communities everywhere. We make a difference to those people around us.

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