00:00 Two years ago, Abbey Wright got diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.
00:05 While she may have beaten it, her husband, Jimmy Wright, is on a mission to raise awareness
00:12 on cancer, especially children suffering from terminal cancer.
00:17 In order to accomplish his mission, he wants to create a Guinness World Record for cycling
00:23 from Saudi Arabian borders to Ras al Khaimah.
00:27 What does this journey really look like?
00:30 Let's hear it from Jimmy and Abbey.
00:33 Abbey was diagnosed with cancer in...
00:35 2021.
00:36 2021.
00:37 I was currently, at that time, in Sydney working for a football team, and Abbey and the family
00:42 were up in Brisbane, so in a different state, so were dislocated at the time when she first
00:47 found out.
00:48 I was also in the Australian Army.
00:50 I had served maybe 14 years by then, and I'd just been promoted to Major, and I was put
00:56 in charge of recruiting for the state of Queensland.
00:58 Very busy because Jim was in Sydney, so I had the three kids doing three different drop-offs,
01:04 maintaining my physical fitness because that's what my role required of me as well.
01:08 I didn't have a lot of time for myself.
01:12 I always wonder if I had a bit more time to focus on myself where I picked up symptoms
01:17 earlier, but you can't dwell on that.
01:21 I just remember getting the phone call when she first found out about the lump, and it's
01:26 diagnosis, and obviously that was really emotional.
01:30 To be told that someone that lives such a clean and healthy lifestyle, it was a real
01:35 shock to be honest, because you just go, "How does that happen?
01:39 Why does it happen to someone so healthy and fit, and that lives such a good life?"
01:43 But then I suppose it's the reality of what life is, and that things can happen, and that's
01:48 just how it was.
01:50 Stage three.
01:52 I found a lump in my breast, and that actually happened accidentally.
01:57 I was playing touch rugby at work with some colleagues, and I received a pass that hit
02:05 me in my chest and it hurt.
02:07 I didn't think anything of it, and then a few days later it was still very tender.
02:12 I felt around and thought, "That feels like a lump there.
02:15 I don't think that's been there before."
02:17 I went to the doctor immediately the next day, which I'm very grateful for because life
02:21 can get busy and you put off these things, especially as a mum I think.
02:23 I had to wait two weeks to get into a breast clinic, and the day that I turned up to the
02:28 breast clinic I had my computer and I was going to do some work.
02:32 I just went through the day not actually understanding that the longer you stay in this room, the
02:38 worse it is for you.
02:39 At the end of the day, I was sitting with the doctor after having all the scans and
02:43 things like that, and the doctor said to me, "I can't give you a diagnosis, but from my
02:48 years of experience, it looks like you've got breast cancer."
02:54 Your brain just can't comprehend this information because it's not me.
02:58 This can't happen to me.
02:59 I've done everything right.
03:00 I'm healthy.
03:01 I don't smoke.
03:02 I've had three children.
03:03 I breastfed them all for 12 months each.
03:05 I've done everything that they say should prevent breast cancer, but I still had it.
03:09 Then I had to wait until the next day to receive the diagnosis of how much had progressed.
03:15 By that stage, it had gone into my lymph nodes under my arm.
03:19 Hearing that was obviously very concerning because once it's in your lymph nodes, it
03:24 could be anywhere.
03:25 I think it was that stage that I was trying to look for things, for positives.
03:30 I think I said to Jim that the only thing that could make this worse was if one of our
03:35 children was diagnosed with cancer.
03:37 I think that would be the worst thing.
03:40 It was really tough because I really wanted to limit, I wanted to protect them, but at
03:45 the same time, I wanted them to be able to understand what I was going through.
03:50 I also wanted to arm them with enough information so that when kids at school were telling stories
03:54 of their grandparents that died of cancer, because everybody's got a cancer story, I
03:58 didn't want them to think that means mum's going to die of cancer.
04:02 It was a very delicate, long process.
04:04 I think it was also about not making it a scary thing, so almost normalizing it with
04:10 what Abby was going through.
04:11 I wanted to make sure that it wasn't a period in their life that mum had cancer, that it
04:16 was just a distant memory that once mum had cancer.
04:18 I didn't want them to remember the whole, you know, it's been two and a half years now.
04:24 I didn't want them to remember this period as mum's cancer period.
04:28 I just wanted them to think, "Oh yeah, mum battled breast cancer once."
04:32 I think she had a big journey when she had cancer, but she was very brave and tough and
04:37 she pushed through it.
04:39 So she's better now, and I love that she's better now.
04:43 So I had three months of chemotherapy and I was really lucky during that time that I
04:47 had a special cap that I could wear on my head that would freeze my hair follicles so
04:52 that the chemotherapy couldn't make it through to my hair follicles.
04:56 Keeping my hair was also another way of not showing the children just how sick maybe I
05:01 was so that they could live a normal life.
05:04 We were sitting on a couch and I sort of said, "What do you think about doing a fundraiser
05:07 for cancer, breast cancer?"
05:09 And that was when Abbey said, "You know, the only thing that could be worse is if our kids
05:14 contracted it."
05:15 And so then we sort of had a discussion about the fact that it would be good to do something
05:18 for kids' cancer and to raise awareness locally in this country and, you know, to help our
05:23 local communities and give back.
05:25 And so that's when we thought, "All right, let's give this a go and see what we can rally
05:29 up and try and give back to the community and give back to the children of the UAE."
05:33 I have socially enjoyed cycling and so that record was, you know, something that I thought,
05:40 "You know what?
05:41 It's going to challenge me physically, mentally, emotionally."
05:43 I've always wanted to do something but I think over time or as we've gone from doing a Guinness
05:49 World Record attempt to where we are now, it's the ability to try and raise money for
05:55 children's cancer has well and truly overwhelmed just the idea of breaking a Guinness World
05:59 Record.
06:00 And I think that in itself has become my number one focus to try and raise funds for children
06:07 of this country and support families that have gone through what we have.
06:11 Physically, I've never cycled 600 kilometres and I don't think many people have.
06:16 So it's going into the unknown and dealing with the unknown, again, physically and emotionally
06:23 and mentally, trying to understand what 600 kilometres looks like on a bike.
06:27 It's not something that I'm going to go and practice every day.
06:30 So I think it's just about doing what I can with the time I have and then on the day,
06:35 just having the right emotional connection and mental connection to why I'm doing it
06:41 and then hopefully the pedals keep working.
06:45 I think a really important factor for me to keep in the back of my mind is I'm riding
06:50 for 600 kilometres and whether that's 20 hours, 24 or 40 hours, that's just going to be discomfort,
06:55 temporary discomfort.
06:56 At the end of the day, two, three days later, I might have recovered and everything will
07:00 be fine.
07:01 There's other people in this world and the people, particularly the people that we're
07:04 trying to raise money for here, the children and the families that are going through proper
07:09 suffering, which is not by choice.
07:12 And so if I can keep that in the back of my mind, the pedals will keep turning.
07:19 Find those moments of joy and moments that bring the children joy, I think, and try to
07:24 have as many of them as possible.
07:27 I know that's personally something that helped me through some dark moments and helped me
07:32 not to, I guess, fall down a hole of depression, which can so easily happen in times of adversity
07:41 and times that you just don't know how you're going to react to it, I think.
07:46 So just being present in the moment.
07:48 Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
07:50 I could not agree more.
07:51 Yeah.
07:51 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:55 (gentle music)
07:57 you
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