ROLE MODEL
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People say ‘this lady has been through hell and back and she is still smiling’ and that makes me happy that I can inspire others.
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NEVER GIVE IN PHOTOS LISA PEARL
KARA HARRY HAS an infectious smile and breaks out in the type of rapturous laughter that you can’t help but join in with. But behind this Noosaville mum’s strong and vivacious personality is an unfolding and heartbreaking health crisis. The mum-of-three has been diagnosed with brain cancer and has endured a year like no other, undergoing three 34
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complex brain surgeries and six weeks of gruelling radiation. It all started in August last year when Kara was starting to suffer headaches and numbness on the left side of her face. “It was gradually happening, but I’m a busy mum, I had three small businesses and I wasn’t really taking notice,” she recalls. Following a visit to her GP and a CT scan, Kara was told of a large mass on her brain. Admitted to Noosa Private Hospital for one night, Kara was transferred to a Brisbane hospital where she underwent urgent surgery to remove the large tumour. Six days later doctors told Kara the worst possible news – she had stage four glioblastoma and just 15 months to live. “It was a big shock,” she says. “I thought it would be benign – they would chop it out and I’d go home and heal. I should have clicked when they said to bring my family in. I think for an hour the whole room was silent. “My son Ash was the first phone call I made when the neurologists told me my diagnosis. It was the hardest call I’ve ever had to make. He’d just had his 21st birthday and it broke me. “I cried then and that’s the only time I’ve cried – telling my son that and then talking about it. I’m crying for his heart.” Kara’s daughter Lucynda, 10, and Mason, seven, are also processing the news. “Mason has been processing it slowly – he just knows it as ‘cancer’ and I’m glad it didn’t hit him too hard.” Despite being told her condition is terminal, Kara has remained steadfast in her willpower and positive mindset – there’s no way this 40-year-old is accepting a time limit on her life, and as part of her inspiring story she has also managed to build and launch her business Little Ladies Workshops.
SALT
27/11/2021 1:44:48 PM
