A week before Sue Debrincat lost her battle with breast cancer, her cousin made a promise to share her story.
Ms Debrincat had been documenting her almost four-year battle with the disease but couldn’t fulfil her dream of finishing the book that detailed her journey.
Sunshine North resident Sue Gatt fulfilled her cousin’s wish for her, publishing
Hope Has Wings on October 23, just six months after Ms Debrincat’s death.
“Sue wanted to write a book that people could relate to. When she got sick, she tried to find something like that, but she couldn’t,” Mrs Gatt said.
Hope Has Wings unflinchingly details Ms Debrincat’s battle with breast cancer from her initial diagnosis, from what it’s like to have chemotherapy and radiotherapy, to how it feels to wear a wig.
Ms Debrincat didn’t have the genetic markers for breast cancer. In her own words from the book, sometimes “it just happens”.
In the book, Ms Debrincat’s friends describe her as a prankster. Mrs Gatt agreed and said her cousin was always laughing.
“She was a jokester – she always had a smile on her face, from the time she was a little girl.”
The cousins shared a close bond. Mrs Gatt said Ms Debrincat had always wanted to help others, even when she was ill.
“She’d be happy if the book helps just one or two people,” Mrs Gatt said.
Ms Debrincat started detailing her journey from the time she found the lump in her breast, writing 10,000 words before she died.
After her death, Mrs Gatt delivered to a writer, Tanya Tabone, her cousin’s unfinished manuscript as well as journal notes Ms Debrincat had written. To fulfil the wish, Ms Tabone interviewed some of Ms Debrincat’s close friends and family, and pieced together her story from there.
Mrs Gatt said she was surprised to read some of the letters Ms Debrincat had written to herself, as she’d hidden how much she’d struggled with her illness from her family.
“She never cried because she didn’t want to worry us. I’m not going to dwell on that. She’s my baby cousin and I never met anyone else like her.”
Hope Has Wings is available online from www.ozauthors.com, with $5 from each sale donated to the Cancer Council. It is also available as an ebook at www.amazon.com.au
By Samantha Walker
