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Lancelin woman prepares to take part in Jump for Jane

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Nadine Hoffman of Lancelin is one of the people participating in the annual Jump for Jane event to raise money for Breast Cancer Care WA.

Jump for Jane is named after Breast Cancer Care WA board member Jane Loring – who died from breast cancer in 2013.

This year will be the event’s 10-year anniversary.

Ms Hoffman was among those who recently went in the iFLY Perth Indoor Skydiving wind tunnel for a ‘practice’ jump in preparation for the Breast Cancer Care WA fundraiser at Skydive Jurien Bay on Saturday, June 10.

Her diagnosis of breast cancer and subsequent treatment in 2021 left her feeling as if her entire identity had been stripped from her.

“I was working in the health and fitness sector at the time as a yoga and Pilates instructor, and the diagnosis rocked me,’’ she said.

“I wasn’t sick, I was eating healthy and doing all this exercise and yet I had breast cancer.

“I felt like a bit of a failure to be honest.”

She credits Breast Cancer Care WA with providing much needed practical and emotional support at one of the lowest points in her life.

“The help is tailored, it’s practical and it was exactly what I needed to get me through.

“I had financial support, a specialist breast care nurse to provide information on what was happening and a support network who understood what I was going through.”

A Perth lawyer who recently completed treatment for stage 2 breast cancer is also preparing to jump out of a plane, in support of the WA charity.

Erin Blight was diagnosed in April last year after she carried out a self-check at home following a chance sighting of a breast cancer screening van while attending her daughter’s swimming carnival.

“My daughter jokes that she saved my life,’’ she said.

“There is no history of breast cancer in my family, I have none of the risk factors and so I really was only carrying out the check after noticing that screening van.

“To then receive the diagnosis was quite a shock to me.”

She underwent two surgeries, four months of chemotherapy and 30 sessions of radiation therapy, finishing her treatment at the end of January.

The support of the counselling sessions offered by Breast Cancer Care WA – both group and one on one – helped her through the ordeal.

“The diagnosis and treatment can be quite lonely.

“Friends and family ask how you are, but you often keep the honesty and reality of how you’re truly feeling to yourself.

“Having people who are going through the same thing as you allows you to connect on a deeper level and truly open up.

“That’s very cathartic and I think almost necessary to be able to move forward.”

This article appeared on Yanchep News Online on 14 March 2023.

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