By Gabriella Payne
Last year was filled with many challenges for people across the globe as the pandemic took hold, but for Gembrook local Kelly O’Sullivan, it was even worse than most.
Ms O’Sullivan, an energetic and bubbly woman, had her world rocked last year when she was diagnosed with stage four head and neck cancer – a devastating blow for the mum of three.
Being forced to spend months in and out of hospital and requiring a full jaw reconstruction, Ms O’Sullivan said it had been “a crazy journey” but thanks to the incredible people around her, particularly the amazing work of the staff at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, she had made it out the other side and was alive to tell the tale.
“During that time in hospital, the nurses stepped up and became my surrogate family,” Ms O’Sullivan said.
“It was during lockdown and no one at all was allowed to visit me,” she said, adding that it had been particularly hard to be away from her husband and five year old son.
“It’s a horrendous cancer, with lots of invasive surgeries,” Ms O’Sullivan explained, describing how she underwent operations as long as 14 hours in order to combat her aggressive cancer.
But unlike other well known forms of the disease, head and neck cancer is “not very well known” according to Ms O’Sullivan – something she is now working hard to change.
Ms O’Sullivan, who will be celebrating her one year cancer-free anniversary on Thursday 22 July, was “honoured” to be named as this year’s Royal Melbourne Hospital Dry July Ambassador and is using her experiences to help raise awareness and funds within the local community.
“When [the RMH] asked me to be their official ambassador for the campaign, I was honoured – it’s just crazy!” she said.
Both Ms O’Sullivan and her husband are taking part in the Dry July campaign, alongside many of her family members, and all together they have already raised a whopping $17,500 to go towards head and neck cancer treatment and research at the hospital.
Having already raised $6,000 on her own, Ms O’Sullivan is currently the fourth highest fundraiser in the country and she’s hoping to see even more donations roll in over the month to help support the amazing team at the RMH and other people impacted by cancer like herself.
“I’m very lucky, I just feel like my perspective on life has changed a lot as well since this journey began,” she said.
“It’s a team effort and I have a team of warriors behind me.”
Ms O’Sullivan said she was overwhelmed by the amount of support she and her family had received from the Gembrook community and she encouraged everyone who could to donate to this worthy cause.
“Every donation helps – whether people dig deep or shallow, it all accumulates,” she said.
To support Ms O’Sullivan’s Dry July campaign head to: https://www.dryjuly.com/users/kelly-osullivan
All funds raised will support patient care at The Royal Melbourne Hospital.
