Mother’s Day Classic: Cate Hale’s journey

Posted on 23 April, 2015

With four children ranging from ages four to 16, who wouldn’t be tired? Cate Hale, 45, put her daily exhaustion down to her own part-time work on top of catering to the kids school and sporting commitments as well as playdates and appointments.

In 2010 she just wanted the year to end so she could rest.

But a routine visit to her doctor just weeks before Christmas rocked her world.

Within a month the normally healthy mother of four turned 41, moved house, celebrated Christmas and had a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

“To be able to manage and not become overwhelmed with information and possibilities of what may or may not happen I split my cancer into three categories – diagnosis, treatment and recovery,” says Cate.

One of her first points of call was Breast Cancer Network Australia – the key support group for people affected by breast cancer.

“I particularly liked the online support group which was available at any time which I called the ‘Voices of Reason’. The worry and fear always seemed more prevalent in the middle of the night,” says Cate.

“BCNA produced brilliant clear information, assisting with decoding the medial jargon and variables associated with cancer treatment. Even better, it was available online and in hard copy for all effected – me, my carers, and my family members,” she says.

When her recovery wasn’t as straightforward as Cate had wished, the BCNA community was there again with its support.

It was May 2011 when Cate was sitting in the oncology ward receiving treatment that she decided she was going to be around to celebrate Mother’s Day in 2012.

Her goal was to mark her survival with by joining the Mother’s Day Classic (MDC) walk around the Lake Burley Griffin.

“Unfortunately, due to complications with recovery it was three years before that goal was realised,” says Cate.

But having done the MDC in 2014 she is determined to do it again this year with her family.

“I had an overwhelming sense of achievement last year with a feeling that the focus has changed. I was fighting fit again instead of fighting cancer,” she says.

The Mother’s Day Classic fun run/walk has become a calendar must-do for thousands of families, friends and community groups.

On Sunday 10 May an estimated 6,500 Canberrans will do the 5km walk and run or 10km run around Lake Burley Griffin and revel in a festive event that supports a serious cause – funding research into breast cancer, Australia’s most common female cancer.

Mother’s Day Classic National Chair, Louise Davidson, said people participate for different reasons: some to honour loved ones lost to breast cancer, others to mark their survival – and a growing number who enjoy the event’s family atmosphere and participate to reach their own health and fitness goals.

“It doesn’t matter how you walk or run, or even how fast, it just matters why,” Louise says.

Louise says while anyone attending a Mother’s Day Classic will see festive dress-ups and an abundance of pink, this doesn’t change the serious undertone of why the event exists in the first place.

“For every pink wig and tutu out on the course, there will be participants wearing tribute cards to honour loved ones living with breast cancer and remember those lost to the disease. We try to make Mother’s Day Classic a fun and memorable day out, but we never lose sight of our purpose,” Louise says.

Since it began in 1998, Mother’s Day Classic has contributed $24.3 million to the National Breast Cancer Foundation’s research program. In that time breast cancer five year survival rates have increased to nearly 90 per cent.

To register go to www.mothersdayclassic.com.au.

Photos of Cate and her two youngest children by Jodie Marland Photography.