Today's post is in memory of my friend, Clare Oliver, who passed away from Melanoma (Skin) Cancer recently. She was only 26 years old. I had the privilege & honour of getting to know this amazing girl as she was my coursemate at Melbourne University - Media and Communications. She was this intelligent and lovely girl who was always full of life and never failed to have a smile on her face. In the greatest irony of life ever, she fitted the perfect example of being a Media and Communications student all the way even to her deathbed. Knowing she was about to die and wanting everyone else to avoid her fate, she managed to get a country involved by using the Media to broadcast her story and in 2 weeks, she changed the laws in regards to solarium issues what 2 years was not able to do in Parliament. She got the attention of Australia's PM John Howard and the attention of the country. Lives were touched and changed because of her story. You will be missed Clare but your legacy will live on, the memories cherished in our hearts until we meet again in our Father's house where there is now no more pain nor sorrow for you. Thank you for being my friend & once again reminding me how precious and short our lives are on this earth. You will be missed.



Links:
http://www.clareolivermelanomafund.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Oliver (You have your own personal Wikipedia entry Clare!)

You can also do a Google Search "Clare Oliver" to get the news reports from the various Australian Newspapers for more information. In true journalism spirit, here is the last letter from her written to the press:

"I AM at peace. But if I could go back and talk to myself when I was 19 I would tell that girl not to use a solarium -- that melanoma is not a small cancer that you just have cut out and you will be fine.

I may pass in another week or it could be two. If I really fight it out, I may even have six weeks left.
It's scary, because I feel myself getting more tired, and each time I feel sleepy it worries me that I might not wake up.

So far I have lived 25 years. If I am lucky I will reach 26 because my birthday is on Saturday.
It is a short life, but I have lived it.

Subconsciously I did know that cancer was involved with solariums because I was aware of UV A and UV B rays.

But when I was 19, I saw a cheap offer of ``buy 10 sessions and get 20''.

The girl working at the tanning salon told me the fastest way to get a tan was to come in every second day and use speed cream.

My mum told me it was abnormal to get in a box and fry myself, but I told her it was cool and everyone was doing it.

After the 10th session I was starting to burn and it hurt, so I stopped. But I guess I stopped too late. It would be irresponsible of me to blame it just on solariums, because I grew up in St Kilda and went to the beach a lot.

But you can't tell me the Government doesn't realise the dangers of solariums.

Young girls need to go out and educate themselves about solariums before they make any decisions.

Obviously my decision has been made, and I think they should be banned. But now that you know my story and the resulting risks involved, hopefully you will realise it is not worth having a golden tan.

I am angry at myself mostly, but I can't believe how much the industry is booming.

A lot of friends tell me I still have a lot of life left in me, but I just live every day as though it is my last.

I was 22 when diagnosed. I had just finished a Bachelor of Media and Communication and a Master of Cinema at the University of Melbourne and started work as a sports journalist at SBS. I was on top of the world.

But I only got to work for three weeks and then I found out about my cancer.

I will never get to climb the so-called ladder, and even now I complain about not being able to run the rat race with everyone else.

I know I would be good at it -- I think I would be great at it.

I wanted to go to the top, but now feel I have so much potential that will be unused.

It was 2004 when they found a tumour under my left armpit, which they treated with immunotherapy.

In July 2005, it came back and this time they treated me with radiotherapy.

I was cancer-free for a year and seven months, and then in April I found a lump in my neck. I thought they could just cut it out, but it turns out there were seven tumours in my chest and one in my lung.

Now they have stopped counting how many there are.

I had all these ideas and in the end I was ready to accept that two years would be more than enough time left.

But I have accepted it, especially now that I am nearing the end and I am at peace.

When you are someone like me you realise that life is everything and you grab it with both hands and embrace it.

If there is something that you feel needs to be done, go and do it, and do it wholeheartedly because life is short.

People ask me how I can still be so happy with all this on my plate. But I have lived my life as a spark. I don't want to live a life where I am living until I am 100 and just flat boring.

I have always lived my life with compassion and passion. I have never been one to keep my silence about anything I have felt passionate about. ''

Melanoma is no joke. And I will keep championing this cause till the day I take my last breath."

Labels: Clare Oliver

It was quick but I did find my brown shoes that I wanted for work and play. Pic attached. And at 15% off! But downside was that Ernie mentioned that they had a 50% sale recently. Hiaz...timing, timing...



Mellow basal firm grip leather loafer

Kudos to the trio for helping me decide as well. What would I do without you all? You're such a blessing in my life!

=0)

I don't even know why you bothered to sms me if all you wanted was to make me feel like crap. You assumed things without clarification on my end and you weren't very interested to find out the truth. We agreed that we would be friends, but to me, if that's the kind of 'friendship' that you're giving to me, I would rather not have it.

Think about that. Word travels around indeed.

I can proudly say that I am now training with some of the best runners in Singapore. Who you might ask? Well, our Singapore Gurhka Unit of course! A lot of them actually run at the former Bidadari Cemetery near my place and I’ve decided to do terrain running there as opposed to the sedate Serangoon Stadium that I've been using to do my training. It’s quite motivating to run with them and I do try my darnest to overtake whoever is in front of me at that point in time. They are very good runners I must say, very good. The day that I keep pace with anyone of them is the day that I’ve made it.

Today is the 2nd week of my entire 15th Week Preparatory week for the marathon. I ran approx 14km in 1hour and 16mins. That averages to 5.4mins for each KM. One round of the cemetery is approx 1.8km and I did 8 rounds today making each round to average around 9.5mins per round. Not too bad considering that there are quite a fair bit of uphills that I had to literally force myself to move my legs in order to get over it. It’s tough, but the tough people get going. ☺

I want to clear my 42km. I know I can do it despite it all. God be my strength!

Yes indeed! My VERY FIRST TEACHERS DAYS! How exciting! Not only that, I received my VERY FIRST Teacher's Day present as well. Got this cute COW stapler stationary from one of my Sec 2 boys that I teach English at. Guess who's going to be "well-looked" after from now on, ey? :-p I'm trying to get the picture up soon so that you all can see, it's rather cute this cow stapler.

We didn't teach on Friday as it was celebration time! The school had this (insert school name here) of the Year competition, where each class from Sec 1 - 4 sent a representative up to do a Hip-Hop dance. After the contestants were shortlisted down to 10 (by our esteemed judges who included Ed & Jo! Way to go peeps!), the boys basically dressed up in their smart school blazers and underwent the ‘Ms Universe’ treatment of answering questions, i.e. “What would you do with a million dollars?” kinda thing. All very fun! There was a rock band thingy happening as well in the middle of the competition and while the boys could play well, I assure you, they really needed work on their vocals. Let’s just say that I went back (ran away) to the staff room to get some ‘work’ done. :-p Some parents from the support group of our boys organized a lovely buffet lunch for all teachers so that had a pretty good meal I must say.

The highlight of the day was not Teachers Day celebration however; it was AFTER that when Jo, Van and I went out. We caught Evan’s Almighty and it was terribly funny! ‘Terribly’ because being a Bible believing Christian, one had to cast aside all theological understanding and rational in order to enjoy the show. It was pretty darn funny in my books! Heh! That done, we moved on to the enjoyable pastime of almost every Singaporean, SHOPPING! I think I must have withdrawal symptoms because I bought me-self a very nice pair of Levis’ 523 Jeans and Gap Khaki’s for work/play. Attached pictures below.



My new Levi's Jeans




New Khaki pants, just what I need!

Author's note: The person wearing the pants in the picture is not me, duh!


On my shopping list:
1. Brown Dress Shoes
2. Belt for Khaki Pants
3. Recce for more working pants
4. Recces for more working shirts.


When is payday again?