Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Heritage, the Arts and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to pay tribute to a wonderful Australian woman, Annie Donaldson. She was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer—a death sentence for a lot of people—about 15 or more years ago but Annie has fought that disease. In particular, over the years she has not simply gone into remission; she has worked out how to deal with the disease on a personal level and in a way that she hopes has kept her—as a mother, as a daughter and as a sister—just as supportive as she has always been. But Annie has not been content simply to deal with her disease on a personal level. She has set about raising funds for the whole business of cancer research, particularly stem cell research. She has been most concerned about the fact that people from rural areas, as Annie is, have great difficulties with accommodation when they go for long stints to metropolitan hospitals.

Annie has a very particular skill with art and craft. She makes the most superb porcelain dolls. She dresses them and makes their hair. These are real works of art. Annie has made doll after doll for raffle after raffle to raise money to help not her personally but those coming after her who have this dreaded disease. Annie was one of the founding members of Relay for Life in Shepparton. The Relay for Life, as we all know, is a major fundraising activity for state and territory cancer councils. It remembers those who have been lost to cancer and the carers who have been left, those who tried to ease the days when their loved ones were alive. Every year I have been the patron of the Relay for Life and I have walked with Annie in the opening ceremony, and we have raised the biggest number of dollars for every Relay for Life held in Victoria year after year. This year Annie is not likely to be with us, but I know that she will be with us in spirit and I know that she has served as an icon for both the sufferers of cancer and their carers. As she has strode out with her short hair with its radiation curls, with a smile on her face and wearing her sash, she has been a living embodiment of the spirit of struggle. I have to say that Annie has for so many of us been a person larger than life. I am sorry; I need a moment.

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