TAKING ON THE PINK RIBBON AFTER A GOLD MEDAL
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| Suzy Balogh, at Michel’s Patisserie Wattle Grove |
October is Pink Ribbon month and 2004 Olympic Gold Medallist, Suzy Balogh’s own brush with breast cancer has inspired her to join the ranks of ambassadors working to publicise the importance of supporting the work of the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
Just before departing for the 2004 Athens Olympics, Suzy Balogh was at the pinnacle of her trap shooting career. She couldn’t wait to get home to share the news with her family that she’d made the Olympic team, a dream she had been working towards for many years.
Suzy started shooting when she was 14 years old. It is a sport that her family has been involved in for years – her grandfather was an avid shooter and her father still is.
“It’s sad that my grandfather died before I won the Gold Medal, as he was a reserve for the Hungarian Olympics team in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. But my Dad is amazingly proud of me!” Suzy said.
“It’s so nice when you can share a passion for a sport with someone you love.”
Suzy moved to Green Valley a couple of years ago, in order to be closer to the Sydney International Shooting Centre at Cecil Park, which was the venue for the shooting during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
She is very close to her family who live in Queanbeyan, but her focus is now on getting to the London Olympics.
“I didn’t want to waste valuable training time by travelling too far to a shooting range”.
Of course, if her family needs her, she says she’ll be there in a flash, which is what happened in 2004.
Suzy was committed to competing in shooting trials for three months in the lead-up to the Athens Olympics.
“We had about 2 weeks to go, and I had made the Olympic team,” Suzy said.
“I was shooting in Sydney, so I dashed home to share the news with my family. My dad grabbed me and sat me down at the kitchen table and I thought oh, this is a bit odd; and he just came out with it. Your mum’s got breast cancer.”
Her family had been keeping the news from her for a couple of weeks, so that she could focus on her training.
Suzy said her emotions were torn between her career high and her personal low.
“You couldn’t get two more varying emotions,” she said.
“This was the day I made the team. But all I could think of was ‘What if there is a bad outcome for mum?’”
Following her mother’s diagnosis, Suzy immediately transferred back to Queanbeyan with her job at the Department of Primary Industries in Orange.
“I just wanted to be there to help mum through the chemo and everything,” she said.
“Mum and dad couldn’t fly to Athens with me because of mum’s treatment, but I knew they’d be watching on TV. That day, I remember looking at the scoreboard and I was 4 targets in the lead. I was so overwhelmed I burst out crying.”
Suzy pulled herself together and went on to become the first Australian woman to win Olympic Gold for shooting and the only Australian to win shooting Gold on Olympic debut.
She remembered her mum’s words as she left for Athens.
“She said, ‘Don’t do it for me, do it for yourself.’ Only a mum could say that!” Suzy exclaimed.
“I remember standing on the podium and thinking, ‘Whatever I can do with this medal to help people like my mum, I’m going to do it!’”
When Suzy returned to Australia, she decided to become an ambassador for the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF).
“My way of coping with mum’s diagnosis was to support the NBCF,” Suzy said.
“The research funded by the NBCF doesn’t just help breast cancer, it helps all types of cancer. And men get breast cancer too.
“So the take-home message whenever I have a speaking engagement is that men should be encouraging their wives to perform regular breast checks, but that they should also be checking themselves too.”
By 2015, 15,409 women are projected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia – an average of 42 women every day. The number of men diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia increased from 62 in 1982 to 103 in 2007. Improvements in survival are attributed to earlier detection of breast cancer through mammography screening and continually improving treatment outcomes as a result of research.
“So many people are directly or indirectly affected by breast cancer,” said Suzy.
“No one will die from breast cancer in Australia by 2030 – this is the aim of the NBCF and is what they’re projecting – which is absolutely fabulous.”
Suzy encourages everyone to support the efforts of the National Breast Cancer Foundation by hosting or attending a Pink Ribbon Breakfast during the months of October or November. Donations can also be made online at Living Gracefully Pink Ribbon Fundraising Page.
