With stage four breast cancer, Moama’s Katherine Nye doesn’t know which day could be her last. The mother-of-two is taking every day as it comes, living in the moment and desperately trying to create lasting memories for the children she will eventually leave behind. Now she has her eyes and heart set on the Great Wall of China, a five-day walk she has to raise $14,000 to be eligible for. And with $6000 to go she needs all the help she can get to make one of her last wishes come true. IVY JENSEN reports
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MOAMA’S Katherine Nye is living every day like it’s her last.
Because it very well could be.
In fact, the 43-year-old mother-of-two doesn’t know how long she’s got.
With stage four breast cancer having spread to her spine, liver and pelvis, time is not her friend.
‘‘The hardest part is thinking of me not being around in the future for my family,’’ she said.
Kath has everything to live for, including husband Kel and their son Jesse, 7, and daughter Holly, 3.
After finding a small lump in her breast on Australia Day 2013 — when Jesse was just one — Kath’s doctor broke the news that she had aggressive stage two breast cancer.
‘‘I was absolutely devastated. I couldn’t believe such a thing could happen to me,’’ she said.
‘‘My first thing was ‘I don’t want Jesse to grow up without a Mum’.
‘‘It was really hard but then I went into this fight mode and went through treatment and was really optimistic because they’d got it early.’’
Kath underwent surgery (removal of lump and lymph nodes), before having six rounds of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiotherapy, emerging out of it ‘‘ready to be fit and healthy and disease-free’’.
‘‘I started eating a very clean diet, exercising very regularly and slowly gained my health and fitness back,’’ she said.
Slowly, Kath started to put the cancer behind her and not live her life in fear.
After two years of good health, Kath fell pregnant with Holly who was born in February 2016.
By November that year, Kath — who works as osteopath — hurt her back at the gym and the pain didn’t get better with manual therapy.
An MRI confirmed her worst fear — she had cancer in her spine.
‘‘There was multiple tumours all through my spine, liver and pelvis,’’ she said.
Kath’s world fell apart.
‘‘Kel and I were absolutely heartbroken,’’ she said.
‘‘The grief and sadness was almost too much to bear.
‘‘I was just bawling. I was like an animal. I was screaming on the floor. It was too much.
‘‘My devastation for the kids, who will lose their mummy way too soon, seemed insurmountable.’’
All her friends in Perth — where the family was living at the time — pulled together and helped them get their house ready for sale so they could move back to Echuca-Moama.
‘‘I was having appointments and scans and the house was crazy busy trying to get the house finished and ready,’’ she said.
‘‘It was amazing but really intense.’’
Once they moved to Moama, Kath started radiotherapy treatment to her spine, which stopped the pain, and more chemotherapy in the first half of 2017.
With her cancer being HER2-positive, Kath is also on two immunotherapy drugs and hormone therapy.
‘‘This treatment is not a cure – it is palliative, so it is done to ease the pain only and buy me more time,’’ she said.
But for the moment, the cancer is stable and has disappeared in places.
‘‘It’s got rid of some of the tumours and everything is stable and I’m hoping that keeps working for a long time,’’ she said.
‘‘The aim is the keep it this way for as long as possible.
‘‘It’s been two years now and everything’s stable.’’
Through her treatment, Kath said she had managed well physically, but mentally she was ‘‘an absolute mess’’.
‘‘I was really depressed and I was struggling to do anything. It was so overwhelming. I had a lot of counselling and ended up on antidepressants and that helped a lot,’’ she said.
However, that hasn’t been the worst part of her cancer battle.
‘‘The worst thing is knowing my kids are going to lose their mum at an early age. And that just breaks my heart and what they’ll go through,’’ she said.
‘‘Jesse knows I’m sick. He doesn’t really say anything about it though because I seem well and Holly is too young to have any idea.
‘‘When I was having radiotherapy, I told Jesse ‘I’ve got some baddies in my body and they’re trying to make other baddies and so when I have radiotherapy, there’s going to be a laser that shoots these baddies and kills them all’ and he drew a picture of all these baddies and what this radiotherapy was going to do. He thought that was really cool.’’
It was when Kath was having treatment that she heard about the OTIS Foundation — a national charity based in Bendigo providing retreat accommodation at no cost to people experiencing breast cancer and their loved ones.
‘‘Spending time with my beautiful family and friends is so important and that is where the OTIS Foundation has a place,’’ she said.
Kath was able to create memories when she and her family stayed at one of the retreats outside Bendigo in June 2017.
‘‘The whole family went, including my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and it was such a beautiful, relaxing time,’’ she said.
‘‘I went another time with my friends and that was just brilliant and we had a really good rest.
‘‘We had three nights away and we just played Cluedo and ate great food and just hung out and relaxed. It was amazing.’’
Kath is now raising money for the foundation to help fund the retreats so ‘‘those of us going through treatment, recovering from treatment or have limited time left can get away for a break and not have to worry about any financial burden associated with it’’.
Kath, along with her brother Paul Taylor, sister Kerry Fountis and friend Rachel Colless, will head to Beijing in October to walk the Great Wall of China.
‘‘We hope to immerse ourselves in Chinese history and culture, while walking along with others helping out with raising funds for OTIS,’’ she said.
‘‘While I’m going along quite well, I wanted to do something really inspiring and meaningful and have something to strive for.
‘‘And to do it in the company of my siblings and my mate Rach will just be an absolute hoot.’’
The group has to raise $14,000 to be eligible for the five-day walk and is already over the half-way mark.
‘‘We have raised about $8000 so far, so another $6000 to go,’’ Kath said.
‘‘Every $100 raised provides one night’s accommodation at one of the retreats.’’
The OTIS Foundation, in collaboration with The Kyabram Gift and Dillmac Entertainment, is also holding a major fundraiser in Echuca next month to raise money for residents living with cancer.
The formal dinner and gala fundraiser was born from the idea of performing for charity, to dually showcase Dillmac talents and raise awareness and proceeds for The OTIS Foundation and The Gift.
Organiser Liz Dillon said she hoped to sell more than 100 tickets to the fundraiser which she expected to become an annual event.
‘‘The night promises to offer a fantastic dining experience, opportunities to win various locally donated prizes and vouchers, sensational local talent and it’ll finish off with a great musical trio the patrons can dance the night away to,’’ she said.
Tickets cost $90 can be bought by contacting Liz on 0438 521 229.
Kath will be attending the event, which be held at Radcliffe’s on March 29, where she will speak about her trip to China.
For Kath, this trip is more than just about raising money for the OTIS Foundation.
It gives her something to look forward to, to strive towards. In a future that is largely unknown.
And as terrifying as that is, it is a temporary reprieve from her daily reality.
‘‘I guess it’s changed my perspective on life,’’ she said.
‘‘I try to enjoy life today and live more in the present and don’t sweat the small stuff.
‘‘I’m just trying to make memories. I just want to travel as much as I can with the kids and create lasting memories.’’
■ To sponsor Kath in the OTIS Great Wall Adventure, visit www.otisfoundation.org.au/my-fundraising/61/kaths-otis-adventure