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Samuel Johnson’s sister Connie plans to spend ‘quality time’ with her family in her final days.
Earlier this month, the 40-year-old made the heartbreaking decision to end her cancer treatment.
The mum-of-two has been battling the disease on and off since the age of 11, and after a double mastectomy and gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, the side effects have become too much for the brave mum-of-two.
‘I’ve had about 10 years of active cancer treatments in my life for three different cancers and it all builds up in toxicity over the years,’ she said.
She explains how difficult it was when telling her sons, Willoughby, 10, and Hamilton, 9, her decision to end the treatment.
‘[We did it] through lots of tears, lots of questions…it’s very, very difficult,’ she said.
‘It’s very confronting and I wouldn’t wish for anybody to ever have to go through that discussion. It’s the most confronting part of my whole cancer career, answering the kids’ questions and addressing their grief.’
Connie says she plans to create ‘normal childhood memories’ for Willoughby and Hamilton while she still can.
‘My legacy with family is playing board games with Willoughby, and watching Hamilton get better on his unicycle, skateboard and bike,’ she told the ABC.
‘I like encouraging those interests and sharing the little moments because that’s the stuff I remember from my childhood. I really want them to have those fond, just normal childhood memories with their mum.’
Connie and her brother Samuel – who with just one year between them have been inseparable since childhood – co-founded the charity Love Your Sister, which aims to raise money and raise breast cancer awareness.
Over 2013 – 2014 Samuel, raised over one and a half million dollars by uni-cycling across Australia – breaking the then-Guinness World Record for the most distance travelled on a one wheeler.
Connie hopes to make another one million dollars for breast cancer awareness and research and on May 10th the Big Heart Project.
The campaign has been collecting five cent coins and on the day will use to them to form a giant love heart.
‘This will be my last hurrah,’ said Connie.
Samuel recently won Best Actor for his role in Molly, and the Gold Logie for Australia’s favourite TV personality. He used his speech to raise awareness of Love Your Sister.
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