24 Sunday Territorian. Sunday, August 4, 2013. www.sundayterritorian.com.au

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body+soulsundayterritorian.com.au SUNDAY LIFESTYLE

www.bodyandsoul.com.au

The best thing that happened

to Sally Obermeder last

week was a game of “hot

potato” she played with daughter

Annabelle in the kitchen. She

fondly recalls how the simple

distraction of throwing and

catching a spud left the toddler

in hysterics. “I remember

thinking, wow, look at this silly

game. It’s neither a fancy toy nor

has anything to do with status

or money, but my daughter is

screaming with delight.”

It’s simple things like this that

Obermeder, 39, treasures most.

In fact, she says these moments

are “what life’s all about”. It’s easy

to understand why. Two years ago,

when she was 41 weeks’ pregnant

with Annabelle, the TV presenter

was diagnosed with a rare form

of aggressive breast cancer.

There’s never a good time to

get cancer, but for Obermeder it

struck at a time when life couldn’t

have been better professionally

and personally. She was married

to the man of her dreams, Marcus,

they’d become pregnant after

IVF and she’d risen to become

a popular television personality,

interviewing stars such as Angelina

Jolie and Beyoncé for the Seven

Network’s Today Tonight. The

day she was diagnosed, she

also received a phone call saying

she’d just landed a book deal.

“It felt like skipping through

a fi eld of daisies and being shot

from behind,” she says of the

routine check-up that revealed

an aggressive stage-three cancer

the size of a tennis ball. “I don’t

cry about it every day like I did in

the beginning, but I still can’t bear

to take my mind back to giving

birth under those conditions.

The grief is still with me.”

A BODY UNDER ATTACK

Obermeder recalls how she’d

noticed some pain in her breast

and a bit of puckering, but had

assumed it was just a blocked milk

duct caused by pregnancy breast

changes. “I’d forgotten to bring

it up with my doctor a couple of

times,” she says. “We’re often told

breast cancer is painless but my

diagnosis shows it isn’t always.”

The treatment included eight

months of intense chemotherapy,

which started when Annabelle was

only 10 days old, and a double

mastectomy. As Obermeder’s

breast cancer was aggressive

and non-hormonal, she needed

the strongest chemo available,

which she likens to her body

being “nuclear bombed”.

“Losing your hair and eyebrows

– that’s just the surface. The

damage on the inside is huge.

My body was falling apart,” she

says, recalling her nails falling

off, the ache in her bones that

made even lying down impossible

because of the pain, and her

mouth and throat fi lled with ulcers.

But instead of retreating

from the public eye to wallow,

Obermeder sacrifi ced her privacy

to give others hope. She attended

industry events wearing a wig or

bravely showed off her bald head

and openly talked about her battle.

On one occasion she brought a

room of magazine types to tears

and received a standing ovation.

Many wondered where

Obermeder’s unfl appable

strength came from, but it was

the culmination of two challenges

she’d already faced: dealing with

being 30 kilograms overweight

in her 20s and later letting go

of a lucrative fi nance career to

make her way in the notoriously

cutthroat world of television at

the “mature” age of 30.

“When I became sick, the

determination of losing weight

and persistence of getting into

TV came together,” she says.

“I asked myself, remember how

you did those things when no one

thought you could? It’s the same

now. I tried to tap into that attitude

and apply it to cancer.”

LIFE AFTER DIAGNOSIS

Last October, a year after being

diagnosed, Obermeder was given

the all clear. Just beforehand, she

made a promise that if she did

survive, she’d pay it forward. This

pledge means that when she isn’t

“CANCER HAS MADE

ME SURE OF WHO I AM”

Nearly two years a� er her life-threatening breast cancer diagnosis at 41 weeks’ pregnant, Sally Obermeder

is back on TV, her bright smile and sunny optimism shaken but never shattered, writes Jessica Montague

(from left) Obermeder with her 21-month-old daughter,

Annabelle, who was born the day after she was diagnosed

with stage-three breast cancer in October 2011; the presenter

recently returned to air on Seven Network show The Daily Edition

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