Professor Chris O'Brien passed away on Thursday evening, 4th June 2009. This tribute is from the conclusion of the RPA episode which aired on Wednesday evening, 10th June on the Nine Network.
Jenny and I watched this when it aired on RPA on Wed 10 Jun 2010. Jenny that afternoon had received a phone call confirming her suspicions that she had a brain tumor. She rang me at work to tell me and I quietly shed tears as she explained the details to me. We all knew this was going to be different. It was the progression of the cancer that she feared most.
Joanne was not able to watch this episode with us - I can't remember why - but I had it recorded on my PVR, and Jenny and I thought we would play it to her at some stage.
Late the next day we saw Jodi (Jenny's Oncologist) in a corridor meeting at the St George Cancer Center. She had the brain scans and we saw a large tumor on the left side of Jenny's brain.
Things progressed quickly from there and on Wed 17 Jun 2009 Dr Davies performed a 4 hour operation at the St George Private Hospital to remove the tumor. Six days later on Tue 23 Jun 2009, a day before Jenny was scheduled to return home, her heart failed and we almost lost her there.
The next six days were very difficult and Jenny was unable to move by herself. This resulted in a significant build up of fuild in her lungs. I was called to the Hospital at 9:15am on Tue 30 Jun 2009. All I was told was to "hurry". I rang David to tell him that he should call Joanne at School and get her to come to the Hospital as quickily as she could. As I approached the ICU, I thought I needed to call Jodi, Jenny's Oncologist. No need to, as I rounded the corner, I could see Jodie and when I saw her I knew what had happened. She hugged me with tears in her eyes and told me that Jenny had passed away - Jenny's lungs had failed from a massive pulmonary hemorrhage and she left us at 9:16am on Tue 30 Jun 2009.
I said to Jodi I had not expected it to end this way. For some time I had thought we would have Jenny at home for a final few months of caring for her as she quietly left us - just as Jenny and Joanne had done with their mother. Jodie told me you can never tell how it will end and that for Jenny "it started with the lungs and ended with the lungs".
Though Jenny never met Chris O'Brien face to face, they were rather well connected in many ways, not just through their cancers. Jenny was the Sutherland Shire Relay for Life Survivor Representative in 2007 and she spoke to a large crowd at the Candle Ceremony on the day of the Relay.
The next year, Chris O'Brien was the Survivor Representative and it was his turn to speak at the Candle Ceremony. We almost got a photo with him after his talk, but he was in a dinner suit and had to rush off to a Charlie Teo Foundation (Cure for Life Foundation) Dinner.
The last talk Jenny gave was on the 1 April 2009 at the Riverview School in Lane Cove. The talk was given to approximately 200 Year 9 and 10 boys. They were mesmerised and inspired by her story of hope, courage and strength. Jenny was also touched by the fact that the guest speaker they had a month earlier was Dr Chris O'Brien, a person she felt quite connected with. He made sense to her through his own public journey with cancer.
On Fri 3 Jul 2009, as Joanne and I readied ourselves for Jenny's Funeral on Mon 6 Jul 2009, we found a spare moment and I played this video for Joanne to finaly watch. It was a moving moment.
