Actor Samuel Johnson’s terminally ill sister, Connie, has revealed her heartbreaking decision to end all cancer treatment after a long battle with the illness.
The 40-year-old has a long history of illness, suffering from bone cancer at age 11, a tumour in her womb at 22 and now breast cancer.
“So that’s 10 to 11 years of cancer treatment in a 40-year lifespan and I guess my organs are just saying, ‘No more. No more’,” the mother-of-two told the Canberra Times.
“Basically, it wasn’t my choice. I can’t have any more chemo medically. So that’s a game changer,” she said.
‘”I asked what to expect and at some point the tumours will grow back and grow bigger and I’ll go into liver failure and I’ll sleep a lot. Apparently it’s quite peaceful.”
Ms Johnson discussed her struggle with the disease in a post on the Love Your Sister Facebook page.
“Most days I can see the bright side, most of the time I feel grateful for what I have, but there are days when I just get fed up,’” she wrote.
“The hot flushes are unbearable and the night sweats so bad that I sometimes have to change all of my bedding several times a night. I now have to wear continence aids because I keep wetting myself.
“The vomiting is unpredictable, I don’t know if I will keep down each meal. My legs are swelling so much that I can’t walk, so I have to wear compression bandages that are tight, difficult to put on, expensive and hot (and not terribly attractive).”