Mothers Day Article – Front Page Sunday Star Times 8 May 2011
Fight for another Mother’s Day
NICOLA RUSSELL
This morning Natalie Murphy got breakfast in bed and flowers from her 22-month-old son Jackson.
It’s special because Natalie’s doctors think this Mother’s Day will be her last, although she’s determined to fight.
“Elephant,” Jackson says, introducing his favourite toy – one Natalie gave him the day he was born. Eight months later she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Then, just minutes from a mastectomy, she and husband Greg were told the cancer was in her liver, and that she had two to five years.
She had chemotherapy, but a scan in January showed her tumours were back, bigger than before. She was told she had a year to live.
“When I was given five years, I was convinced I’d live 10. So to have somebody take my worst-case scenario and make it real …”
Today is the 12th anniversary of meeting Greg, who says Natalie shines as a mum every day.
“To watch someone go through this with a smile and still be a mother is amazing. She’s used Jackson as motivation, that’s what gets her up.” That and Greg, who went part-time this month to spend more time at home.
Natalie says: “Because I’m tired, sometimes I’m unmotivated. Greg puts Jackson in the car and before I know it I’m like, `oh, thanks for getting me out of the house’.”
Her latest treatment means she can be at home.
After her first cycle she was told her tumour marker was down.
“I said to Greg, `I’m so going to be here longer than a year’. Everything inside me says a minimum of two years, three hopefully.”
Normal things, like Mother’s Day, are important. “When we don’t have plans we just enjoy being together. When you are faced with your own mortality, that stuff is special,” Natalie says.
She and Greg put Jackson first. “We do family stuff, walks, and the park is his favourite.”
But sometimes she thinks of something she must write down, something she knows she won’t be there to tell him when he’s a teenager.
“Greg and I are going to work on a book of things I want him to do – and not to do – with Jackson.”
The trained beauty therapist wants to help women undergoing chemo who have lost their hair. The first 10 to contact her at www.helpnat.com will get a lesson from Natalie on drawing on eyebrows, making lost eyelashes less noticeable and modern ways to wear your scarf and where to get them from! Natalie has been through this herself and was thankful for her skills to help her better through the hardship of losing all your body hair.
Your Mother’s Day paper is pink for the Breast Cancer Cure Research Trust, with 10c from every paper sold at retail helping the trust help women like Natalie.
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