Jemille McKenzie’s cancer journey began when she was just 12 years old.
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She got off the bus after school camp to find her older sister Sinead in pain and rushed to hospital with suspected appendicitis.
It turned out to be a type of liver cancer, extremely rare for Sinead’s age of 14, and Jemille’s life was turned upside down.
Sinead lost her battle with cancer ten months later and Jemille says CanTeen became her light in the darkness.
“I had a lot of guilt around my cancer journey and why wasn’t it me that was passing away and not my sister,” she said.
“With CanTeen, they assured me it wasn’t my fault. That helped me to not be so hard on myself.”
The national organisation helps young people cope with a close family member’s cancer or their own.
“The whole point of CanTeen is to make people not feel isolated when going through a cancer journey” – something Jemille now says she wants to give back to others after being helped herself.
This Friday marks the organisation’s annual fundraising and awareness campaign, National Bandanna Day, which aims to raise $1.3 million.
Every bandanna sold will help provide counselling services, online support and the chance for young people to connect with others who understand what it is like to deal with cancer.
It will be Jemille’s seventh year taking part, heading to Melbourne to sell bandannas and designing and wearing a dress made entirely of them.
But this year, the CanTeen member and 21-year-old decided to do something a little bit different and each day for the month has donned a bandanna and posted a photo to her Instagram account.
Along with the snap is part of Jemille’s journey each day, allowing her followers to see the difference CanTeen has made to her life.
“I just wanted to do something a little bit bigger than I usually do,” she said.
“I wanted to raise awareness beforehand and have people get behind it earlier.”
To follow Jemille’s story, visit her Instagram account @jem_maus.
For more information about CanTeen, or National Bandanna Day, visit www.canteen.org.au or www.supportbandannaday.com.