“I thought I’d already done cancer.”
For a long time, that belief gave Audrey a sense of certainty and comfort. She had faced breast cancer once before, moved through surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and come out the other side believing the hardest, most frightening chapter of her life was behind her. “I really thought that chapter was closed,” she says. “I trusted my body again.”
Before the return of cancer, she felt her life was rich and grounded.She worked full time, ran parkruns, and felt strong in herself. She had rebuilt her fitness and confidence after treatment and felt proud of how far she had come. Cancer belonged firmly in the past, something she had survived and left behind.
Her first diagnosis came in 2017, after she found a lump in her left breast. At the time, it didn’t feel alarming. “I honestly thought it was a cyst,” she says. Early checks didn’t raise concern, and with delays in accessing further tests, time passed. When an ultrasound finally confirmed breast cancer later that year, everything moved quickly. Surgery followed in early 2018, then chemotherapy and a month of radiotherapy.
“It was a really tough year,” Audrey says, “but I never let it define me. I always felt like I had a one-up on it.”
When treatment ended and follow-up scans came back clear, Audrey focused on getting back to herself. Mammograms were normal. Her strength returned, slowly at first, then with more confidence. She ran again. “I worked really hard to rebuild myself,” she says. “Physically and mentally.” She believed, wholeheartedly, that the cancer chapter had closed.
Years later, it was small changes that unsettled her. She noticed she was more breathless than usual when she ran, and recovery felt harder. Physical activity began to feel different in a way she couldn’t explain. “I just knew something wasn’t right,” she says.
With a family history of heart issues, Audrey first explored that path, hoping for an answer that made sense. Tests didn’t show anything significant. As a precaution, her specialist suggested a CT scan.
“The phone call came that same afternoon,” Audrey recalls. “And in that moment, everything changed.”
The scan revealed tumours throughout her body. It was metastatic breast cancer, a term Audrey had never heard before and didn’t fully understand at first. “I didn’t believe it,” she says. “I asked, ‘So you’re telling me I’ve got cancer in my lung, cancer in my neck, cancer in my pelvis, cancer in my sacrum?’” The doctor explained calmly, “No, no, it’s breast cancer. But that is… a leftover from your breast cancer.”
Learning that cancer can quietly return years later, in different parts of the body, took time to process. Audrey now lives with stage four metastatic breast cancer, even though the new cancer isn’t present in her breasts. “It’s not curable,” she says. “After my first cancer, they made me ring the bell. I’ll never ring a bell again. But it is treatable, and that’s what I hold onto.”
Treatment is ongoing and has become part of her routine—tablets, monthly injections, and radiotherapy when needed. Some tumours respond, others become active again. “I’ve learned not to look too far ahead, although my goal is to be dancing at my grandchildren’s weddings,” she says. “I just deal with what’s in front of me.”
What has grounded her through all of this is connection. Audrey’s best friend, Frankie, is COUCH’s Fundraising Specialist. It was Frankie who gently suggested she spend time at COUCH. “She just said, ‘I really think this could help you,’” Audrey recalls.
Audrey attended an open day without expectations. “I wasn’t sure it was for me,” she says. “But it felt safe straight away. I didn’t have to explain myself.”
At COUCH, Audrey has accessed GP care with clinicians who understand cancer, spent time in the café, and found comfort simply being in the space. “People just get it,” she says. “Sometimes you don’t need to talk. You can just sit there, and that’s enough.”
Living in Cairns with only her son as close family nearby, Audrey relies on regular contact (often by phone) with her mother, brother and other son and friends in Melbourne, as well as the support of her wonderful colleagues at AFL Cairns, new friends she has made locally, and the wider community. “Sometimes just catching up with people, even for half an hour, can really lift you,” she says. “That’s my energising time.”
Audrey now speaks openly about metastatic breast cancer and the realities of living with it. “People don’t always realise cancer can come back like this,” she says. “I certainly didn’t. All my breast checks were clear, so I thought I was fine. I really believe we need to be having better conversations about secondary cancers and ongoing scans, even years after treatment. Talking about it matters, because awareness can change outcomes. I know if I’d found mine sooner, things might have been different. Everyone who’s had cancer should be aware of the possibility of metastasis.”
This World Cancer Day, Audrey’s story is a reminder that cancer does not always follow a straight line, and that understanding, support, and connection can make a profound difference.
“If sharing my story helps someone feel less alone,” Audrey says, “then it’s worth telling.”