Peri Liddell Sydney, New South Wales Australia Amazon Heart Thunder Australia 2007 Support Van Driver   Click Here to Donate Now!

My name is Peri.

I was diagnosed with the dreaded BC, grade 3, in 2001 at the age of 44. Within a week, I’d had a radical mastectomy & 12 lymph nodes removed. This was a week before Christmas!

Having always been positive & active, the worst part for me was going through the chemotherapy & radiotherapy because it really slowed me down and I found myself feeling low a lot of the time. To keep my mind off thinking about it I literally worked my way around the treatment by actually staying at work. At the time I was working in a pharmacy and it was quite funny when our regular customers commented on my different hairstyles. I was wearing a wig for a while, and then my hair grew back curly, which is certainly not what it was before. People always noticed the changes, but never really knew what was the reason behind them.

In 2005 I decided to remove the other breast as there was no way I was going to go through all that again. After that I had a reconstruction & tram flap. It took me a long time to come to terms with having a reconstruction but in retrospect it was the best thing I have ever done for myself and haven’t looked back. It was amazing the difference it made to my life.

It was after that surgery & was strong enough that I discovered Dragon Boating. I needed more than golf & skiing. This is a team of women who have also been ‘tared with the same brush’ and have their own inspirational stories to tell. We support each other and understand the need to work together as a team in a rowing regatta, not to win but to achieve the goal of living life to the fullest. Every time we ‘paddle’ on beautiful Pittwater we know how blessed we are to be there.

I am looking forward to my first Amazon Heart ride. A very different way of spreading the word of breast cancer awareness. So much has changed in the past few years, since the beginning of this incredible journey. Having a supportive family & wonderful friends who are there whenever you need them means more than life itself. And most importantly, the dreaded BC has led me to meet a group of amazing women who also have shown there is a life after breast cancer to fulfil.

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