Donna’s Boob-boos
Donna Falconer’s battle with breast cancer has been well documented in the pages of Dubbo Photo News over the years but in recent months the tireless awareness-raising campaigner has been cruising Queensland in her Groovy Booby Bus to spread the message far and wide.
And while the “groovy” traveller is keeping ahead of Covid outbreaks, visiting many more isolated and remote communities, she’s also enjoying weather far warmer than the current cold snap keeping Dubboites inside with the heating.
Donna is travelling with her mate Viv Dawe from Bellmere in Queensland, and the pair is grabbing attention wherever they go just by being there, and in the stand-out Groovy Booby Bus.
Here are some excerpts and photographs from her social media journal so far:
June 3
ANOTHER full day. It doesn’t matter where we park, we always attract attention. Last night we stayed in a small park with only about 10 other vans, however we started the conversation with two lovely fellow travellers and gave them books, again leaving our mark (or book) at the park’s book exchange.
Then while driving around the centre of town in Home Hill, we pulled up at an intersection and a lady was walking my way waving, so I wound down the window and she said, “Hello Donna from Dubbo!”. She then proceeded to tell me she knew all about me, as she was from Dubbo too and her name was Carol Tink.
Next, it was on to Ayr where
we had our morning coffee and it found us meeting, chatting and giving out more books to the girls at the Gudjuda Deck Cafe.
A must do when in Ayr is a visit to the Ayr Nature Display (there are over 60,000 specimens artistically arranged on coloured backgrounds) with a wonderful informative explanation of displays by Lorraine.
Then off to explore the main street and also Lorraine’s husband had said we must have a look at the cemetery where you can see some of the most amazing headstones and plots as the area had a lot of Italian cane cutters.
Again lots of roadworks, so lots of tooting and waving. As it was near lunchtime we saw a sign to Giru so decided to turn in and found the home of one of the many local sugar mills and Viv smiled at a crocodile. We enjoyed our lunch in the little park.
Then it was on to Townsville as we pulled off to take a photo with the Big Croc, I received a message from ex Dubbo Resident the lovely Kerry Storey who offered us a shower and some power at their Harley Davidson Dealership. I haven’t seen Kerry for some 20 years when our children went to school together before they moved from Dubbo.
Kerry offered us a ute so we could explore Castle Hill and its amazing view and The Strand which is the beautiful waterfront. We then called in to Kerry and Mark’s apartment and Kerry sent us home with a homemade beef stroganoff for dinner and some yummy slice to enjoy.
June 10
THIS morning before we got the wheels rolling we had a lovely chat to Carmen, Phil, Lilly and Sylas from Nowra. They’re on the road for four months and currently heading to the Top End. Carmen said she had been looking for a book to read so I was glad to give her a copy of My Time. Her mum was a breast cancer survivor and she wanted to send her mum photos of Groovy.
Then we said thanks and goodbye to the Mount Carbine Caravan Park and Nikki, who is very breast aware as she was a rehabilitation nurse and also has a very strong family history. She said she never misses her mammogram appointment. Nikki was another beautiful, extraordinary person we have met as she is the Good Samaritan nurse for the area.
June 11
LAST night as we were setting up, our neighbour Di came over for a chat and wanted to take Groovy’s photo and was delighted to get a book!
This morning we headed down the main street where we started a chat with Nerida from Sydney who wanted photos of Groovy and was happy to receive a book. While waiting for a shop to open Ned from Brisbane came up asking to take a photo as he had seen the bus a couple of weeks back and had told his wife and wanted to show her we’d been up here as well, so we gave him a book to pass on to her.
Next we took a steep climb slowly up to Grassy Hill look-out for 360 degree panoramic views of Cooktown, the Endeavour River and the Coral Sea. Here I also chatted to a fellow survivor.
After exploring the magnificent botanic gardens we enjoyed a morning coffee with a beautiful view listening to the birds as we sipped!
A short but bumpy drive we found Finch Beach.
We didn’t know when we booked but the Cooktown Expo started tonight until June 20. The town is booked out, so we cruised up and down the waterfront doing what we do best tooting and waving.
We decided to get some fresh local prawns, fresh bread rolls and of course a bottle of bubbly and head back to the caravan park as it was windy and the clouds were building – interesting, Google said five per cent chance of rain, however two locals had told us it was going to rain as the clouds were coming over the mountains!
We spent the afternoon chilling in the van listening to the light rain on the roof.
June 12
TODAY just before leaving the lovely Cooktown Caravan Park, we met Bron (a survivor) and Michelle and had a lovely chat, then time for our last quick lap of the foreshore tooting and waving, we fueled up and when I went in to pay Christine said, “Are you screening? I need to start having (mammograms). I am over 50.” I told her to call 13 20 50 and gave her a book.
Time to head back South, we pulled into a lookout and fellow travellers came over. Jason and Jason gave us the thumbs up and loved our stubby holders. Marilyn also came over to say hello, then Glenda came over to say she had already booked her next mammogram.
Our destination today was Kuranda, a beautiful spot (set amid) the rainforest. our neighbours were Steve and Kerry. A beautiful lady, Melinda, called over – she was diagnosed in 2019 at 47 – she has finished her treatment now. We chatted for half an hour. She is to here do some work placement. We then had a visit from Janet Spigge from Orange.
Tonight we are parked up in the rainforest.