“I like a fight; I love a challenge.”
“If I believe in something, then I refuse to give up.”
Being told you have terminal cancer could stop you in your tracks, but for one resilient and remarkable Launceston woman it’s quite the opposite. No diagnosis is going to stop her from taking full control of her life. She makes her rules, not cancer.
Then add in a global pandemic. Covid19 prevents you from flying interstate for treatment, and overseas to visit family. It’s the perfect recipe for a ‘self-pity party’.
But not for Kim Good.
Kim was first diagnosed with stage four Bowel and Ovarian cancer in 2016 and given just two years to live. Four years later, she’s still here and not going anywhere, and no global pandemic is going to stop her. According to Kim it’s a chance for the rest of the world to catch up with what she’s been doing for the majority of the past four years.
“I’ve been doing isolation for three years or three and half years,” Kim said.
“It’s all you poor buggers that have to, you know, catch up with what I’ve been doing. Now you can all go, well now I know what she feels like lookin’ at four walls.”
Living through Coronavirus restrictions hasn’t changed much for Kim and its certainly nothing that is going to get in the way of her day to day activities.
“I’m either going to go out with a bang with cancer, or I’m going to go out with a bang from corona … They both start with c.”
Kim’s now close to four-year battle, isn’t her first time battling the beast that is cancer. It is in fact her third time fighting a form of cancer, and each time she has shown incredible, almost inhuman like strength, all whilst always having her fingernails perfectly manicured.
Almost 25 years ago, prior to the birth of her youngest daughter Lucy, doctors found a desmoid tumour. After radiation therapy and surgery, she was cleared.
And then in 2013 the unthinkable happened, Kim found out she had breast cancer.
Still to this day, she vividly remembers calling her mother, who lives in Western Australia, to tell her the news.
“I remember ringing my mum and saying mum, I’ve got breast cancer.”
“And she goes, ‘Well, I’ve had breast cancer and you’ve had cancer before and you just deal with what you got to deal with and you just, you know, get on with it’,”
Kim has a laugh to herself fondly thinking of her mother.
“That’s my mum. Very loving but she doesn’t pull any punches.”
This no-nonsense attitude still remains a defining characteristic throughout her latest battle, which begs the question, where does she get her strength from?
When asked Kim pauses, takes a moment to deeply ponder and then with tears beginning to form in her wise blue eyes she says,
“My Dad.”
“I’m the eldest of four girls and my dad’s pretty resilient and he taught us that.”
The tears are now streaming down her face, yet she has a sparkle in her eye.
It’s the power of positive thinking, with a little help from her upbringing which provides Kim with her astonishing strength.
“And to me, being told, you know, that you’ve got two years, that’s just a number,”
“And I’m not the kind of person who sits in the corner and go woe is me, I’ve got two years. It’s like stuff that for a joke, let’s prove them wrong.”
Kim joins the 16,398 Australianswho are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year and the 1532 femaleswho are diagnosed with ovarian cancer annually, according to Cancer Australia.
Some days are tougher than others for Kim, often living her life ‘week on, week off’ due to her fortnightly Chemotherapy treatments. She is unable to entertain her friends and family nor enjoy a glass of champagne, which are things she loves to do.
One thing that has surprised Kim about her journey isn’t those down days though, it’s the friendships she has lost.
“… I have noticed that even prior to this pandemic, having cancer is a very very very lonely place to be, because people forget you.”
“[I’ve] Lost lots of friends, couldn’t even count friends on one hand anymore,”
“… the people that I thought would have been right beside me are nowhere, absolutely nowhere.”
Still, that isn’t enough to impact Kim’s determination in this fight of her life. With the love and support of her husband, children and extended family she soldiers on, crediting them as her reason to continue to fight.
Murray Lockhart, Kim’s husband, is extremely proud of his wife and believes the way she has handled the cards she has been dealt is a lesson to all.
“She’s been a person that not just me, but a lot of people in the community should take heed of how she has approached this,” he said.
“When you’re feeling well enough to do things, do them, make them happen.”
Whilst the past four years haven’t been easy for their family, Mr Lockhart has a similar attitude and the determination of his wife.
“It’s not something you put your hand up for, but you’ve got to make the best of the situation, so you know it’s like going outside in the rain. Don’t stay inside go and buy yourself a raincoat.”
Kim is already planning beyond coronavirus restrictions being eased with her bag ready to be packed and to be on the first plane to see her daughter in Melbourne.
With news of her soon becoming a grandmother and her daughters upcoming wedding, Kim has a few additional forces in continuing to fight.
“… Haven’t got time to die- I’m about to become a grandmother,” Kim said.
Kim’s a fighter.
Determined, strong and inspirational.
No global pandemic or cancer diagnosis is going to stop her.
“I like a fight; I love a challenge.”
Just Vic Things 