Sam Johnson’s hero sister
The actor prepares for their ‘last hurrah’ after his sister ends her treatment
Big-hearted Sam Johnson has been by the side of his older sister Connie every moment of her tragic seven-year breast cancer battle, even quitting acting to raise awareness and funds for their charity Love Your Sister.
But now he’s facing even more heartache as Connie announced last week that she has been forced to cease treatment.
“I guess my organs are just saying, ‘No more, No more’, ” Connie reveals. “It wasn’t my choice. I can’t have any more chemo medically, so that’s a game changer. At some point the tumours will grow back and grow bigger, and I’ll go into liver failure and I’ll sleep a lot. Apparently it’s quite peaceful.”
But Connie and Sam, who have already raised $2.1 million, have one “last hurrah” planned, with hopes of raising another $1 million. The pair are aiming to create an unofficial world record by forming a million-dollar heart made up of five-cent coins through the Big Heart Project in Canberra on May 10.
Connie, 40, has undergone a double mastectomy, radiation, chemotherapy, a number of medical procedures and most recently, another bout of unsuccessful chemotherapy, which attacked her liver.
The mum-of-two also had treatment for bone cancer at the age of 11, and for a tumour in her womb when she was 22.
Connie’s famous brother Sam, 39, has been by her side throughout her many battles. “I can’t play pretend on telly while our families are falling,” he wrote on the Love Your Sister Facebook page as he announced his retirement. He’s even blasted a campaign to win him the Gold Logie for his portrayal of Molly Meldrum last year. “Cancer is the last true riddle of our time (not of our doing) and I wanna be part of the push to solve it once and for all,” he explained. Connie says she’s made peace with her future.fut “I have had my miracle... when I got diagnosed as terminal all I wanted and hoped for was to live long enough that my boys would remember their mum,” she says of sons Willoughby, 10, and Hamilton, nine. “I got that, they k know me, know how m much I love them a and will always r remember their m mum. I definitely g got my miracle!”
‘Cancer is the last true riddle of our time… I want to solve it’