Brave Amanda’s fight
A POPULAR North Queensland businesswoman, rural media figure, bush poet, farmer, wife and mother of a six-year-old child is fighting back after being diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.
Amanda Griffiths, owner of Mandy’s Beauty in the Bush Salon, said she felt unwell a day after winning the Most Inspiring Microbusiness award at the inaugural Hinchinbrook Business Awards late last month.
“A week ago I was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer; I’ve never smoked in my life,” Mrs Griffiths said.
Three days later, she was undergoing surgery to remove half a lung and cancer-infected lymph nodes.
“We may have got most of the cancer but I think I might still be going in for low-dosage chemo or, I don’t really know at this stage, I’m still awaiting results and a treatment plan.”
Popularly known by her customers as Mandy Poppins, the Bush Beautician, the Long Pocket-based citrus farmer and “Jill of All Trades” was also short-listed for a prestigious rural media award at the Royal Queensland Show for her blogs, podcasts and magazine articles.
“It’s incredible that you can be having some really good achievements and then everything turns to rubbish at the same time,” she said.
Mrs Griffiths said she had been feeling unwell and suffering from a dry cough for about six weeks before the business awards on July 25, visiting medical professionals on a number of occasions.
“And then actually a day after the awards ceremony ... I woke up feeling a bit unwell again and I just thought ‘nah, I need to go and see a doctor again’ because this is not getting any better.”
She said she was diagnosed with cancer in Townsville a week later.
The chances of a nonsmoker aged under 40 years developing lung cancer were rare with just one to two cases in Townsville a year, she said.
The mother of six-yearold Daisy, a student at Ingham State School, said her “world had come crumbling down” when she received the initial diagnosis but her spirits were immediately lifted by an outpouring of love from those around her.
Mrs Griffiths, who was born and raised in Ingham but has lived in London, Townsville and the Hunter Valley, said she still had “a bit of road ahead of me”.