Mother’s Day event raises vital funds
BREASTSCREEN Toowoomba is a step closer to obtaining some valuable medical equipment thanks to a very successful Mother’s Day High Tea and Fashion Parade.
The annual event held at Gip’s Restaurant attracted 100 women last Saturday morning and raised an incredible $5000.
BreastScreen Toowoomba’s goal this year is to raise $142,000 for a new 3D ultrasound as well as to upgrade its existing 2D ultrasound to 3D software.
Breast cancer survivor Melissa Buccholz was guest speaker at the event and explained to the gathering that taking things one day at a time as the thing that enabled her to get through her treatment and move on with life following a diagnosis of aggressive breast cancer in March 2011.
At the time of her diagnosis Mrs Buchholz was a busy mum of two children and four foster children,
“When I was first diagnosed, a friend who had been through breast cancer five years before gave me the best advice,” she said.
“She said you don’t look too far ahead, you just look at one day at a time and you focus on what’s going to happen tomorrow and you don’t think about all the scary stuff that’s ahead.”
Following surgery to remove the tumour, Mrs Buchholz underwent six cycles of chemotherapy and six weeks of daily radiation treatment.
In November 2011, Mrs Buchholz was given the all clear and life has only gone on to be better and better.
“After my cancer, I worked on my fitness and lost 20kg and moved to Toowoomba to start afresh,” Mrs Buchholz said.
After arriving in Toowoomba, Mrs Buchholz restarted her life, continuing her 30-year music teaching career by teaching in various schools initially then progressing to building her own private studio.
Eventually she remarried, and is now enjoying life with her two children and one grandchild who recently started school.
“I look on my cancer as a wakeup call that I had to change my life in so many ways, and of course, it was a terrible thing to go through, but I try to look back on the day of my diagnosis as the day my life improved for the better,” Mrs Buchholz said.