By CASEY NEILL
“THE moment I saw Erin on Andrew’s arm I just started to cry tears of happiness.”
It was a moment Cranbourne North mum Tracey Ryan almost didn’t see.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2010.
It’s since spread to her spine, ribs, lungs, liver and throat and it’s only a matter of time before the disease takes the 50-year-old’s life.
But she’s making the most of the days she has left with husband Andrew, daughter Erin, 27, and son Leigh, 16.
Tracey wrote a bucket list in 2012 as a joke, but now has only three items left.
On 20 September she ticked off seeing Erin walk down the aisle at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Kensington to marry Chris Church.
“The night before the wedding I felt exhausted, sad and happy,” she said.
“When she put her dress on I cried.
“I was very, very emotional.”
Tracey completed a tandem skydive on her wedding anniversary last year, climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge with Leigh late last year, and on 24 July received a makeover from Westfield Fountain Gate and Myer.
“You either get into the foetal position and cry and go ‘woe is me’ or you deal with it,” she said.
“That’s pretty much the way I am. I just get on with it.”
She’ll have a thank you party for her family and friends on 29 November, but will “need the Tattslotto numbers” to tick off a return to Ireland to say goodbye to family and friends.
Finding a cure for breast cancer also remains on the list.
“I don’t want anyone else or their families to have to go through this,” she said.
“It’s not just my disease, it’s my family’s disease. They’ve walked side by side with me every second of the day.”
Tracey works with Pink Hope, Breast Cancer Network Australia and the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and is the director of a charity fellow breast cancer suffers set up to give back.
“Because it’s such a financially crippling disease, we give them up to $300 for a breast cancer-related appointment,” she said.
She’s also encouraging women and men to “check their boobs”.
“There’s more and more young girls getting diagnosed with breast cancer and they’re getting fobbed off because the doctors think they’re too young,” she said.
“Don’t take no for an answer. We know our bodies.”
