The family of Bathurst woman Julia Dickson has thanked the Bathurst, Blayney and Cowra communities for their love and support following her death on Saturday morning following a two-year cancer fight.
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She was just 32.
Julia’s husband, Brent Dickson said that he couldn’t thank everybody enough, and he gave special thanks to Blayney Public School where Julia worked as a teacher.
“Without the support of the community this would have been so much harder,” he said.
“What they did for us with the Jingle for Julia fundraiser has just been amazing, and they’re still being amazing.”
Mr Dickson said that the funds raised during the Jingle for Julia campaign were used right up until the end to help keep her happy and comfortable.
“She never wanted for anything,” he said.
Mr Dickson said that initially the funds were used to pay for the immunotherapy treatments, but after five sessions the news that they were no longer working meant that their choices for treatment were limited.
“We were told it hadn’t been working anymore and that she had no options left, that we’d exhausted all our choices,” he said.
“They then told us that four more brain tumours had appeared and another three had appeared in her body as well.’
Told that there was only a five per cent chance of chemotherapy helping, the family made a decision that no family ever wants to make.
“It was put to us that it was quality over quantity,” Mr Dickson said, “And she chose quality over quantity of life.”
That quality of life was going okay for the first half of the year, the family was able to take a holiday with their son Max to Queensland courtesy of the charity Dreams2live4, and another for Max’s second birthday to Dubbo Zoo, but another tumour had begun to grow on her spine, causing a fracture.
“The tumour was growing towards her spinal cord so about four weeks ago we had her in hospital,” Mr Dickson said.
Friend Tanya Tyrell said that Julia had put up a good fight.
“Her goal was to make it to Max’s second birthday and she was still up and about and fit for that one,” she said.
“The world has certainly lost a beautiful soul.”
Julia’s funeral will be held at the Catholic Cathedral of St Michael and St John in Bathurst at 11am on Monday September 10.
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Mark Logan
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
