THE MAKING OF SALLY
THE QUEEN OF LEAN AND GREEN SAYS HER BRUSH WITH MORTALITY RESULTED IN A BETTER PERSON AND MOTHER. IT CERTAINLY MADE HER A FIGHTER
Sally Obermeder credits cancer for making her a better person and, even more, a better mum.
The mother of two is celebrating five years of being cancer-free after an unimaginable, life-changing turn in 2011, when she was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive breast cancer the day before she gave birth to her first child, Annabelle.
“It made me re-evaluate a few things, but ultimately it made me realise that if I survived, I wanted above all to live life to the fullest,” the 44-year-old says. “I had to fight to live for Annabelle.”
In five years, Sally has launched an online fashion boutique, published four books, become a favourite on the desk of Channel Seven’s The Daily Edition, and last year welcomed a second daughter, Elyssa, by surrogacy.
“Sure, I have now had the all-clear, but you always live with a low-level anxiety that it will come back,” Sally tells Weekend.
The Queen of Greens, as she is otherwise known alongside her sister and co-author Maha Koraiem, is marking the five-year milestone with the release of their latest book, Super Green: Simple and Lean. She has also been named among the country’s “game changers’’ in another new title.
Sally was at a 41-week check-up with her obstetrician when she almost didn’t mention a shooting pain she felt in her right breast.
“The morning of the appointment, I left the house happy, full of new life, hope and joy; I was so excited that I’d soon have a baby,” she recalls.
“It never even crossed my mind that something could be seriously wrong.”
A battery of ultrasounds, biopsies and mammograms at Sydney’s Breast Clinic confirmed the heavily pregnant mum-to-be had stage three breast cancer.
“In that moment my whole life completely stopped,’’ Sally says. “I can still remember exactly what I wore that day: a fitted electric blue dress with ruching on the side and metallic silver sandals, and I had my hair in a topknot.
“I remember doing my tax in the morning because I wanted to get all of that sorted before Annabelle was born.”
The new mum went straight from the birth suite and into the oncology unit where she underwent a year of “gruelling” treatment, including chemotherapy, radiation and a double mastectomy, while juggling the demands of a newborn baby.
“It was so hard. My girlfriends cooked meals, my parents looked after Annabelle while Marcus (her husband) and Maha came with me to chemo.
“I was struggling so much but because she was this precious baby that Marcus and I wanted for so long, I couldn’t let her down and I didn’t want her to suffer. I wanted her to have as much of a normal life as possible.
“Annabelle was the strength I needed to get through each day.”
The experience, as testing as it was for a new-time mother, gave Sally a new-found outlook on life, but also triggered a spark for her sister Maha, now Sally’s business partner.
“It should have been the happiest time of Sal and Marcus’s lives,” the doting sister says.
At the time Maha had been working in investment banking human resources for 15 years. “Sally getting cancer wasn’t just a wake-up call for her, but it was a wake-up call for me as well,’’ Maha says.
“I had begun to lose the passion. I had always been interested in writing but it just never seemed like a good time to make a huge life and career change.
“When Sal got sick, we both had to re-evaluate what was important in life.”
Sharing a passion for affordable fashion, health and lifestyle, the sisters launched their SWIISH (Stylish Women Inspiring Inner Strength, Health and Happiness) venture.
In October 2012, a year after diagnosis, Sally was given the all-clear.
Declaring her body was ravaged from the inside out after treatment, she jumped on board the green smoothie bandwagon, fuelling not only her own health but her ambition for her recent books.
“My skin was grey, my nails had fallen off, my eyebrows were gone, my hair had fallen out and I had put on over 20kg from the chemo, plus I still had the post baby weight,” she says.
“I had absolutely no energy and my body on the inside was scarred from the intensity of the chemo.
“I knew I needed to eat more vegies but eating a whole plate of broccoli or two cups of kale seemed totally boring and bland, so I started experimenting with different vegie and fruit combos for smoothies.
“It totally changed the way I ate and what I ate. I started having a green smoothie every morning for breakfast and I’ve never looked back.”
Last year, Sally and Marcus welcomed their second daughter Elyssa with the help of a surrogate from the United States after specialists told Sally another pregnancy would put her life at risk.
She remains close to her surrogate, Rachel, who has three school-aged children.
Now Sally is dedicated to giving back and raising awareness and funds for finding a cure.
She’s an ambassador for the National Breast Cancer Foundation and has launched a charitable initiative, wish by SWIISH, which is helping to turn the wishes of breast and ovarian cancer sufferers into a reality.
“I often wonder if you ever recover from having something as awful as cancer,’’ Sally says.
“I learnt to dig deep. I learnt to keep fighting. I learnt to keep going always no matter how tough, no matter how painful.
“Funnily enough, I also think I’m a better mum because of what I went through.
“Five years on, I definitely feel like myself again.”