Kerrie Claffey Lugarno, New South Wales Australia Amazon Heart Thunder United States 2009 Experienced Rider Click Here to Donate Now!

Hi, I’m Kerrie and I’m thrilled to be taking part in this year’s Amazon Heart Thunder motorcycle adventure for young breast cancer survivors!

Over the course of this week we will raise awareness of breast cancer and in particular young survivors’ issues, raise funds for local breast cancer charities and build a supportive community with our fellow survivors.

After a 15 year history of breast cysts, in 1998 one of those “cysts” turned out to be lobular carcinoma which had spread to 4 lymph nodes.  I had a lumpectomy, radio and chemo (butcher, baker and nausea maker!).  Having had 5 unsuccessful IVF attempts, facing final infertility was as hard as facing my own mortality.  But as life is short anyway, I soon figured out that if my life was to be even shorter, then all the more reason to get on with it and not waste a second.   I continued to work full time, enter gliding competitions between rounds of chemo, go kayaking and cycling to keep fit and generally maintain a balance between vigilance and paranoia.

In an earlier cancer-free life, I’d ridden a motorbike for about 13 years – including Perth-Sydney in 1976 when they were still sealing the road across the Nullabor.  After an 18 year gap, I often contemplated getting another bike to beat city traffic and parking - but my husband kept reminding me that “recycled” riders who think they can still ride are the highest accident risk …  well in 2003 while I was overseas, he had a mid-life crisis and got his bike licence – apparently bikes weren’t so dangerous after all!  After his year’s apprenticeship on the 250, we both bought silly big things.

Just when you think it’s safe to get back in the water … in 2007 a mammogram showed “calcification” and a biopsy showed a cocktail of DCIS, LCIS and more lobular carcinoma.  As it was the same side, previous radiotherapy dictated that this time it had to come off.  Preferring one-stop shopping, I opted for an immediate reconstruction, a pedicle TRAM flap, which takes a few weeks in recovery – like wearing a pair of jeans about 3 sizes too tight!  Then more chemo, but this time gemzar was way less harsh than the previous AC – and riding the motorbike to chemo meant I got a park within 2k of the hospital!  The real problem was fear raising its ugly head again – if it came back once will it come back again?  So I keep reminding myself of the “life is short” bit!

At the same time I was (conveniently) made redundant so chose to retire to have more time to “get on with it”.  I continue to go gliding, kayaking, cycling and motorcycling.  I try to live in honour of the philosophy:  “Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways totally worn out, shouting, 'holy shit.....what a ride!!'”

This is just my story… the sad news is that In Australia, one in eleven women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Around 700 will be under the age of 40, and a further 2,000 between 40 and 49.  Young women with breast cancer experience unique needs and concerns related to their life stage:

• more unhappiness and more financial stress than older women.
• a high degree of social isolation through feeling "different" to their peers, and the unlikelihood of knowing any other women in their situation.

• adverse impacts of negative and/or unrealistic portrayals of women with breast cancer in the media.

Your donation to support Amazon Heart Thunder will help the thousands of women diagnosed with breast cancer each year access the support they need. Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your generosity!

Click Here to Donate Now!