Gloria Best. She was indeed.
For about two and a half years, I worked in the same team as Gloria. It was my honour. She was my director's PA and at the time, I was managing the Vodafone Australia Foundation. We sat in our little corner but mind you, her devilish laughter, I'm sure, could be heard from all four corners of level 20.
Gloria wore a pink vest and would promptly ask to go out for coffee at 10 o'clock. As she didn't have any children of her own, she affectionately adopted me as her 'work daughter', always correcting my posture and warning me from good looking guys...
Gloria died in August 2007. Her 'recurring' cancer recurred again... and I still remember that day when I heard her take the phone call from Dr Bell. Having beaten cancer twice before, she cried (who wouldn't?) but by the end of the day, she was back on the phone leaving Dr Bell a message that she was ready to fight it again.
The next day Gloria approached me and asked whether I could help her with her fundraising idea. She wanted to shave all her hair off ('It's going to fall off anyway!" she exclaimed.) This was a magnificent gesture from a brave, brave woman.
Together we created 'Gloria's angel network' and in front of about 200 colleagues, Gloria's head was shaved. Along with a lolly jar count, raffle, 'best baldie in the building' competition and auction of one of Gloria's personal pieces of decoupage (which brought in $400 alone), she raised $7,155.10 for the Bill Walsh Cancer Research Institute for research into Peritonial cancer (the 'whispering cancer'). Her BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) was $5,000.
Importantly, this fundraiser and Gloria's condition raised awareness on the importance of all women taking a CA125 test.
The months that followed were filled with medical tests, needles and all things nasty. I accompanied Gloria a few times to the Royal North Shore Hospital, when was she receiving treatment, when she had to find out the results of tests. It was tough. When I went to visit her and realised she had been moved into palliative care, it was tougher. In the end, it still remains that speaking at Gloria's funeral has been one of the toughest thing I've had to do my life....
But Gloria's brave fight to the end remains fresh in my mind.
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