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| Cancer be damned: mother and her three kids take the big plunge (09/01/2006) |
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Author: MARTIN BOULTON
Source: AGE
Section:News Page: 3 |
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| SUE Large watched the sunrise over the Yarra Valley yesterday from a hot-air balloon, enjoyed a glass of the region's finest champagne, then jumped out of a plane. |
| The quietly spoken mother of three admitted she was not usually quite so adventurous, but as she sat in the shade of a gum tree at Coldstream Airfield, there was no hiding her excitement. |
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| With a broad, warm smile that lit up her face, the 41-year-old said she was feeling "really good". |
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| This week, at least, the breast cancer she has been struggling with for 2? years is not getting her down - she is too busy fulfilling her dreams and her children are sharing some of the thrills and spills along the way. "Conventional medicine isn't working for me, my prognosis is not good, so as a family we decided to spend time doing the things we've always talked about," she said. |
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| "We always said we should go skydiving one day, but one day might not come, so we're doing it now." |
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| Born and raised on a cattle station in far north Queensland, she now lives in Bowen, north of the Whitsundays. |
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| Her only previous trip to Melbourne held fond memories and she was keen to come back. |
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| After doctors told her that the cancer was terminal, she switched to less conventional treatments and made a commitment to live her life to the full. |
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| Her two sons, Craig, 22, James, 13, and daughter Sam, 18, do not spend a lot of time discussing their mother's illness. |
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| ". . . we talk about it, but we find it's better not bringing it up too much because you don't enjoy that time together . . . and you need to enjoy every day," Ms Large said. |
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| Yesterday, the talk was about skydiving and adrenaline - lots of it. Craig and his sister were first to take the plunge from 10,000 feet and each came back with huge grins: "It's good to see you smiling," their mother said. |
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| James is a year below the minimum skydiving age, but with a little help from Ossie Khan at the Melbourne Skydive Centre, the Australian Parachute Federation and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, James was allowed to share the thrill of free falling at more than 200 km/h with his mother. |
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| Mr Khan, who has made more than 2000 jumps, cooked a barbecue lunch, and made sure the family wasn't suffering from too many pre-jump nerves. |
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| "There's a moment just before you jump that really gets the adrenaline going, but when you're out there, when you're free falling, it's just an awesome feeling," he said. |
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| While Ms Large took in her second bird's eye view of the valley for the day, Sam felt sure her mother was "loving every minute". "She's really brave, she's fantastic (and) it's good we're doing something like this as a family," she said. |
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| After flying in the plane for half an hour, Ms Large spent about 45 seconds in free fall and another six or seven minutes gently drifting back to terra firma. She climbed to her feet, grabbed her children and gave them each a hug. "That was awesome," she said. "My heart was going a 100 miles an hour, but it was just awesome, it's worth living for." |
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