Race against time: Terminally ill woman's Flemington dream
A terminally ill woman has turned to Facebook in a final bid to fulfill her lifelong dream of attending the Melbourne Cup.
Lisa Magill, 34, was given “weeks to months” to live after she was diagnosed with a rare cancer, undifferentiated gastric sarcoma, more than three-years ago.
“People think that when you’re told you are going to die, that you can just go out and do all these great bucket list items, it’s not like that,” she told Yahoo7.
“My mental capacity is shot, I have 30-odd tumors in my abdominal area and a few in the pelvic area. So I’ve been told on numerous occasions that I wouldn’t make it through the night.”
Unsure of how much time she has left and the dream of travelling to New York now up in the air, the former NSW resident has set her eyes on getting into the exclusive Birdcage area at November’s Melbourne Cup.
“It’s the race that stops the nation, I remember all through school I would go to the library and watch the Melbourne Cup,” she said.
“As much as I would love to be one of those people walking out with their high heels in their hand after a great day at the races, I would feel a lot safer in a less crowded area.”
Since Ms Magill reached out to the 26,000 followers of her Facebook page, Terminally Fabulous, several commenters including a jockey and an Emirates airhostess have offered to use their connections to attempt to make her dream a reality.
“Prior to this cancer I attended many NSW race meets and even attended Derby Day down in Melbourne once and it is something I have always immensely enjoyed,” she posted on her Facebook page.
“So as much as I hate to be "that" person, I'm being "that" person and begging you to share this status with your friends and you never know.
"I really do love my little Terminally Fabulous Facebook family, they've been wonderful."
Now under the watchful eyes of her Brisbane parents, Ms Magill was initially told she would not make it past Christmas in 2014 and again in May this year.
“Every night I go to bed, I’m terrified because I don’t know if I’m going to wake up,” she said.
“I’ve been told that the best possible scenario is that one day I will just be walking along and a tumor will basically explode, I will have a bleed and I will just die.
“If I’m going to die, I want to die doing something I love.”
If you would like to get in touch with Ms Magill, head to her Facebook page: [facebook.com/terminallyfabulous/|Terminally Fabulous]
