Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
She dazzled on Dancing with the Stars but right now Cassandra Thorburn is in the fight of her life.
After dealing with a very public divorce from axed TV host Karl Stefanovic, the mother-of-three has been diagnosed with an extremely rare and aggressive form of breast cancer.
“To realise how rare it was, was quite scary and made me feel quite alone,” Thorburn told 7NEWS.
But unlike this disease, Thorburn has no intention of being invisible.
“It’s not a ‘why me’, it’s ‘this is why it is me’, to raise awareness for something that’s so rare,” she said.
Two months out from her 55th birthday, her youngest child finished school with Thorburn saying she had planned to focus on herself — but not like this.
Thorburn shared her diagnosis on social media in February, posting a video and picture showing herself with a freshly-shaved head.
“I didn’t want it to be something that someone heard about or people gossiped about,” Thorburn said.
“Most of it is controlling the only part of my treatment and diagnosis that I can. And that’s the part about when the hair comes off and when you tell people.”
While Thorburn makes regular appearances on TV and is comfortable on stage, speaking at the recent Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation event was different — it is now intensely personal.
“Life is not a game of luck and I have and will continue to thrive, regardless of what life throws at me,” she told the audience.
Thorburn’s extremely rare occult triple-negative breast cancer makes up just 0.03 per cent of all cases in Australia.
Dr Kylie Snook, a Sydney-based specialist oncoplastic breast surgeon, said she had seen it before.
“It’s shown up in the lymph nodes. And so it always raises the question, where did this thing come from?” Dr Snook said.
For Thorburn, it showed up in a mammogram as a grey area under her arm.
Others might feel a lump in their armpit.
“We monitor it the same way that we monitor other breast cancers. So women and men who’ve had breast cancer will have annual screening afterwards,” Dr Snook explained.
Just days ago, Thorburn finished chemotherapy — immunotherapy continues with radiation and surgery to come.
“Absolutely, this is the toughest thing I’ve had to deal with. You know, I’ve got three children, you know. I’m, you know, hoping to be around for a very long time,” Thorburn said.
Thorburn encouraged all mums, daughters and sisters to take breast screen reminders seriously.
