Help our Sarah living w Stage 4 Non Small Cell Lung Cancer

Please allow me to introduce my wonderful friend Sarah. Sarah is: A legendary mountain Mamma, daughter, groover & shaker, massive music lover, community focused blessing, beautiful friend, matriarch, role model (to name a few hats she wears) and barely by threads presently still; a small business owner. Sarah is also living with stage 4 Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). Which in a nutshell means; its metastasised and so she’s also got significant brain lesions, brain cancer, has undergone gamma knife treatments and had not one, but two brain surgeries in less than 12 months, the most recent being January 2025. The last was March 2024. As much as she would try her best to convince you otherwise: She really needs our collective help right now!

Sarah was diagnosed with this bastard terminal illness during COVID lock down in February, 2021. As if lockdowns, business closures and a pandemic wasn’t enough of a nightmare for a small business owner, 3 months after her diagnosis, Sarah's uncle in Germany, was also diagnosed with the same terminal illness proving it hereditary. Sadly he passed away only 3 short months afterwards. Sarah was unable to say goodbye due to her own treatments and her mother being here in Australia to support her, also did not get to say goodbye to her brother with such a short time from diagnosis to passing and the distance with excess time frames for quarantine and travel expenses.

Sarah currently receives no government benefits although while she was born in Germany, is an Australian resident. Despite her diagnosis, she has been running “Café in the Mountains” in Mt Nebo since 2018, often returning to work far too early post treatments & surgeries, to ensure the business continues ticking over not only to ensure cash flow and personal income, but also for the community benefits as it is a common place for tourists to drop in with Mt Nebo & Mt Glorious being prominent SEQ attractions. The café is also a place for local artists to feature their work, a pit stop for numerous motorcyclists and cyclists groups and clubs, and also a space for locals to connect while offering employment to locals/youth in a regional area where they otherwise don’t have a lot of options due to there being no public transport.

Not only has Sarah weathered the pandemic, the 2022 floods and weather event/closures including road closures and developments on both adjoining roads up to Mt Nebo & Mt Glorious, but also supporting her husband through brain surgery in 2024 (I shit you not; its bloody tragic) and is often always putting others before herself with a big community focus. She is generous as hell and has always demonstrated her love of bringing people together with good food and music

. She has a wicked sense of humour and resilience second to none, but this most recent weather event is really the straw breaking the camels back with a loss of business turn over and perishables due to the power outages. Throw in no way to repurchase stock to reopen because of ransacked shelves at supermarkets and no operational vehicle (her car is currently in workshop for repairs). This most recent business closure is equalling approximately $12,000 in losses.

Sarah is undergoing palliative chemo every fortnight to 3 weeks and has been since early 2021. This usually rolls her for about a week post treatment, and despite the brain fog and cognitive impairments that come with chemo and having brain cancer; she has persisted running the business, while also supporting her husband through his recovery and rehabilitation from a returning brain tumour and surgery. She simply has not had even the fumes of energy or headspace to keep on top of the business side of things in tandem, or navigate a way out to sell the business particularly in the event the business has required refurbishment for some time and the rising cost of the rent due to the revolting economic conditions creating more burden. It’s been survival begetting survival and now it is CRITICAL. Its no longer about saving the café: Its now about supporting our wonder woman so she can actually focus on her wellness without all this extra bullshit fodder that nobody should need to endure, and particularly not with a terminal diagnosis. She presently has no car/vehicle as its in the work shop with an estimated $3k worth of repairs required and still currently has no power at her actual home in Mt Nebo, 10 days post cyclone Alfred, due to damages the property incurred.

I am asking with every part of my deepest self, for your help. I want to raise a financial buffer to assist Sarah transition out of the café, while she awaits application/approval for some government assistance, get the car out of the garage so she can independently get to and from chemo treatments, get the café books up to date and allow her to just take a freaking breath, unbridle from the grind……So she might just be able to focus on herself alone for a minute and figure out what the next bit of managing her cancer treatments and life entails.

IF we can raise $12,000, we can help Sarah:

- Get her car back and maintain independence for managing her health and wellbeing $3k

- Bring on a book keeper to sort out the head ache of the back end of the business that has gone by the wayside since her diagnosis with other critical priorities $4k+

- Transition out of the Café/business and onto some support with a humble weekly living allowance over a 3 month period $5k

If you can spare anything: please, please, please donate! If you can’t due to this revolting economic situation presently, please share this around your networks. Any and all support to share this around local networks would be so extremely appreciated. It truly takes a village and I would love to see some return support for this truly remarkable, strong and nurturing woman because this burden isn’t something ANYONE should be facing while ultimately facing a terminal diagnosis and oncology treatments. She deserves more and the opportunity to some form of a quality of life because the emotional burdens and grief of such a weight are more than enough before throwing in the headaches of what running a business through an economic and housing crisis off the back of a pandemic and a couple of extreme weather events demands. Enough is enough!

I have worked with Sarah. I have known Sarah since 2019. She barely complains about much of anything and has an attitude of just "getting on with it". Staunch, Strong, Humoured. Her words to me exactly “There is no bravery to it, you just do it”. The way in which I have watched her keep her shit together is something I have reflected upon to keep myself in check at times. I might be having a shit day, but my mate has terminal cancer and she’s making a choice. So can I. So can we all….. Please help us help our Wonder Woman. And please share this campaign around so we can obliterate and exceed the target!