On a cool, cloudless morning, 72-year-old Linda Lidbury sat down in her living room to tell her story.
Cradling a cup of tea, surrounded by a lifetime of memories, she spoke of growing up in the Australian outback, and of leaving the Red Centre behind to travel overseas before settling down. She laughed when reminiscing about her days as an aerobics instructor in the ’80s.
One thing she didn’t speak of was the cancer that would soon take her life.
“Mum was diagnosed with cancer in April 2020,” explains Linda’s daughter, Carla. “She was pretty much told there was nothing they could do for her because they didn’t know the primary source of the cancer, but the oncologist said that if she wanted to try chemotherapy, she could.
“She said, ‘Well, I’m not going to go without a fight’, which is her to a tee. She was a strong woman.”
While the odds were slim, Linda started treatment. “We held onto that tiny bit of hope that the chemotherapy would work.” That she’d beat the cancer – something she’d done decades before.
“In the
