Connie's Diary: Feb 27

So I got there just before the boobmobile rocked into town, and the gorgeous Mel from Deventer PR came to pick me up from the airport and took me to her lovely sister and business partners home to meet up with the boys. Before I tell you more, I would like to stop here to tell you about Mel Deventer and Jody, her sister. They run a PR firm in Adelaide, and they came forward and offered to help Love Your Sister after reading about us in the Herald Sun back in January. Deventer is a whizz bang PR firm, who are well connected, very experienced and have a great way to help us. They not only volunteered PR services through their firm, but also put all of us in their homes, and organised everything about Adelaide down to the minute. Whether it is because they are very close sisters or just thought this was a great way to contribute to a great cause, I am so glad they jumped aboard.

Mel took me back to Jody’s place and we arrived at about the same time as the boobmobile. I was picturing that I would get to give Sam a big hug, and be able to sit down and have a chat and catch up, but that’s not how it turned out. He had been riding through the Adelaide Hills in pouring rain and he was soaked to the skin. After he had a shower and got warm and dry I thought we’d be able to catch up, but there was a key emergency, with no caravan keys to be found anywhere. So all eyes and hands were on deck searching for said keys, which after 45 minutes of extensive searching were finally located. Due to the delay caused by the keys we had to leave straight away, so no welcome hug or chat to be had, straight into action. I guess that is just the pace of Love Your Sister.

We went down to The Garden of Unearthly Delights where the Fringe Fesitval is held. We set up our merchandise table and mini and bikes and unicycles. It was fun and interesting to see how  Sam and the crew go about their fundraising activities in each town they visit. Having the miniature trick bikes and unicycles at the site where they sell merchandise is fantastic, ‘cos the young and young at heart get to have fun on the bikes and people who are more interested 

I got to speak to a lot of people about Love Your Sister. It was so interesting and at the same time heart breaking speaking to people about their experiences with breast cancer. There are a lot of stories of victory and tales that belong in the past because the people have recovered and moved on, but for others the pain goes on, because they are terminal and won’t get better, because the person they love is gone but the pain of losing them doesn’t go away easily, or because the loss is very recent. It was a real eye opener for me. Sam must have his heart broken 20 times a day, I don’t know how he can pedal 80ks then get off the uni to hear all of these stories. Samuel’s strength is physical and emotional. I have always loved and admired him, but now my admiration has reached new levels. I am so glad that these people who meet Sam along the way can talk to him about their experiences. And I am glad that Sam is learning about breast cancer from so many different viewpoints, it makes the whole epic adventure even more meaningful and poignant.