Momber urges families to find the silver lining
WA’S first national breast cancer foundation ambassador, Louise Momber, spoke about the loss of her parents to cancer, at a pink breakfast fundraiser in Broome last week.
Cable Beach Club Resort and Spa’s Sam Male Room was a vibrant shock of pink last Thursday as 140 women chatted over rose champagne and breakfast to raise more than $6200 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
But silence overcame the grand venue as the beautiful Momber, a Channel 9 newsreader, took the microphone. “Cancer doesn’t play favourites.
It doesn’t care if you’ve been healthy your whole life, as my parents had been,” she said.
The loss of her parents - her father to colonic cancer just four weeks ago and her mother to pneumonia after a long battle with multiple myeloma just over two months ago, remains very raw.
But Momber spoke with sincerity and strength about the importance of positivity, and Australia’s fight against cancer.
“It’s all about making the most of the time you have,” she said.
“What I have learned about life from cancer is that you have to find the positives, the silver lining, or it just doesn’t make sense – as my mum used to say, ‘it’s just crap’.”
Momber said she was proud of work being done by the National Breast Cancer Foundation and other organisations – mainly without government help.
She praised NBCF for its goal of reducing breast cancer deaths to zero by 2030. “Think about what it has done in the past 18 years and what it can do in the next 18,” she said. “I am honoured to be an ambassador.
Working towards a cure should be a priority internationally – and I feel privileged to be able to do my part.
“I want to see families enjoying the freedom of a healthy life together, because that’s how it should be.”
Meanwhile, Jennifer Ellies – a breast cancer survivor and former teacher – recounted her heartbreak of aggressive and recurring breast cancer, drawing gasps and tears from her audience.
She elicited smiles of admiration as she told of her recovery and the new career, hobbies and experiences she had embarked on after deciding to make the most of her time – from joining a band of breast cancer survivors in the Amazons dragon boat team, to training as a masseur, and learning the flute.
