‘SHINING ANGEL’ GAVE SO MUCH
IT WAS the little unprompted gestures Olivia Newton-john would offer Aussie designer Camilla Franks that were the most meaningful during her battle with breast cancer.
Franks was diagnosed in 2018, just eight weeks after giving birth to daughter Luna, and says Newton-john, whose own breast cancer battle began in 1992, turned up “like a shining angel” despite the pair having never met in person.
“It was a very challenging time. I was trying to be wonder woman, to Luna, to my husband, to the business, to the chemo treatment,” Franks said. “I’d just get random little love packs (from Newton-john) sent to my house, and it’s those simple things that make you feel loved, or that call that would give me a bit of advice, or that turning up to the office to give me a cuddle – whatever it was, it was meaningful. And she’s a busy, talented, amazing woman, but she’d take the time out for anyone, no matter what she was going through. She had her own battle, she was fighting the good fight, she was just so selfless.
“The bond wasn’t long but it was very meaningful to me and a very important part of my journey.”
Franks is in remission, having undergone a double d mastectomy and later having her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed.
Franks flew in to Brisbane this week for a fundraising lunch in her name on Friday, which supported grassroots cancer charities, when she learnt of Newton-john’s death at 73.
“It was a shock … I didn’t realise she was going through it again,” Franks said.
“It just seems serendipitous that I’m here raising funds and awareness and we just lost the face of, pretty much, the heart, this woman we all looked up to when you’re in the boobie gang.”