By Alesha Capone
Wyndham’s Chantelle McWilliam will walk 63 kilometres next month in memory of her beloved mother Sandra.
Chantelle will participate in the Remember September campaign to raise funds and awareness for PanKind, The Australian Pancreatic Cancer Foundation.
The campaign asks those involved to remove something such as sugar or alcohol from their diet, or alternatively walk 63 kilometres during the month of September, to honour the 63 Australians who die from pancreatic cancer each week.
Chantelle’s husband Glynn and her younger sister Jasmine are also taking part in Remember September.
Chantelle said her mother died last year about five months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Only a few months before Sandra died, Chantelle’s brother Jeremy died in a motorcycle accident.
Chantelle said she and her family took comfort in knowing Jeremy would be waiting for their mother after she died.
She said her mother, who loved butterflies, told her family she would send a sign that she and Jeremy had been reunited in heaven.
“She said: ‘You will know we’re close when you see two butterflies dancing close together,’” Chantelle said.
Sure enough, on a walk after her mother died, Mrs McWilliam witnessed two butterflies flying close together among some yellow flowers.
“It was beautiful,” she said.
Chantelle has named her Remember September fundraising campaign “Sandra’s Butterfly”.
She hopes to raise $1200 for PanKind.
“If I get even half of that I will be happy,” she said.
Chantelle said she would encourage other residents to support PanKind because cancer “can happen to anyone”.
“It wasn’t until 2020 happened with everything that I realised no one is invincible,” she said.
To donate: bit.ly/3kf17uQ
