22 September 2017, St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, Australia
Cancer really does take the f*cking good ones. And breathe . . .
I first met Connie about four years ago, when Connie and Sam launched Love Your Sister and Sam had this crazy idea to unicycle around the country. I joined him for a ride on the Perth leg of his journey and surprise him with Connie who flew over at the time. I didn't know either of them really before that and what I discovered during that ride was a brother and sister bond like no other and a drive just like mine to rid the world of cancer.
I don't think Sam realised at the time that that ride was as beneficial for me as it was for you, I know what your mission was, but for me it was a chance to chat to someone who watched someone they loved dearly in a huge amount of pain, and that chat will stay with me for a long time. It felt like a private chat even though it was broadcast to the nation.
I continued to follow your journey over the years and watched as the village grows and your fundraising efforts soar. What you and Connie are achieving together is phenomenal and I say achieving together in the present tense because even though Connie has passed away her mission to rid this world of cancer is only just beginning. With Sam, and Emma, and your whole family all the team of villagers continuing Connie's legacy, Love Your Sister will continue to achieve incredible things and I don't think it's going to stop until no one dies from cancer again.
I have been reflecting a lot in the past few weeks about Connie and her journey and how Connie chose to fight her cancer battle publicly, not privately. She could have fought it privately, she had every right to fight it privately, but instead she let us all in on her journey and she taught us so much. She taught us to cherish being a mum, to make time to be silly with the kids and have fun. And I've certainly, in the last few weeks, had Connie at the forefront of my mind. Every time I played with my kids, I played a bit longer each time, think how lucky we are as mums to be able to play with our kids.
She's taught us what it's truly like to be a cancer patient, what it's really like. But most of all she's taught us how to be a bloody good human being. Cancer as we've spoken about tonight affects you not just physically but mentally, and also impacts every single person connected to the cancer patient, which makes being so open with the world incredibly hard and incredibly hard for those around you and your family as well. But that's why Connie touched so many hearts because we got to see the real journey, the highs, the lows, the small wins, the setbacks, the days where it seems impossible and it's ripping your family apart and then the days where everyone is unified and ready to battle. There are not many people that have the ability to rally a nation the way Connie has, all of you here know how personally she has touched your life, it will be different for every single one of us, but the size of her village shows just how wide her heart is and how long her arms are. No matter what type of cancer has affected your family we're all in this together — this country will continue Connie's mission.
To Mark and to the kids, we're also thinking of you and we know once the services stop and the casseroles stop being delivered and life goes back to normal, for most of us, it doesn't go back to normal for you, and I hope that you can transition into your new normal peacefully and privately knowing that we are all thinking of you.
The world is a smaller place without her big heart in it, but thank God we got the chance to know Connie Johnson, I will always be thankful for that.
Connie died on 8 September 2017. Donate now, or get your Connie Cottonsocks at https://loveyoursister.ecwid.com. Join The Village over at http://www.facebook.com/loveyoursister