To everyone else, Kate Cole’s shoes are just another expensive pair of sparkly high heels. To Kate, they’re a symbol she endured her most trialling years.
A car accident in 2013 forced the Point Cook resident to relearn to walk and talk, and left Kate with little feeling in her limbs.
While still recovering a few years later in 2019, Kate suffered her third heart attack, was pronounced clinically dead for a third time, and needed to undergo a lifesaving operation to receive a kidney and pancreas transplant.
The light in Kate’s very dark tunnel was the wedding she was planning with her partner Zac.
The couple pushed through COVID-related delays and finally celebrated their big day last year.
Her dream wedding was made complete with the purchase of one-of-a-kind crystal encrusted Jimmy Choo shoes.
Kate calls them her “Cinderella shoes”.
“I didn’t intend on buying something so pricey and I was like, ‘you know what, I deserve it after everything I’ve been through’,” she said.
“They were my reward so to speak, they were my ‘I freaking did it’.”
The last time Kate wore her heels, it was to a friend’s 30th celebration.
“I thought I’ll wear them out one more time. Because I’m probably not going to be able to wear them for a long time, if at all,” she said.
Kate was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at a young age. During the pandemic an ulcer on her foot developed into gangrene and doctors were forced to amputate her small toe.
Her decision to wear the Jimmy Choo shoes was influenced by the knowledge doctors would need to amputate another toe.
On the way home, Kate took off her heels to drive. They were left on the floor inside her car.
“When I got to my car Monday I’m like ‘where’s my Jimmy Choos?’ I messaged my husband, and he’s like, ‘no, I didn’t grab them’,” she said.
“I came home, tore the house apart and I realised they were gone.”
Kate is asking residents in Wyndham to be on the lookout for her stolen shoes, taken from her driveway sometime between March 23-25, and contact her if they have any information.
“Someone does this when I’m so vulnerable already, it cuts you really deep. I’m not involving the authorities or anything, I just want my shoes back,” she said.
“Everyone’s like ‘they’re just shoes’, they don’t understand, they’re a lot more to me.”
Kate is offering a $1000 reward for the return of her shoes and said there will be no questions asked.
“I just hope someone has a heart, they’re so rare they can’t be replaced, they can’t be remade.”
