Bareback horseback riding, skydiving, and flying in a fighter plane are some of the things Alisi Jack-Kaufusi never thought she’d be able to do.
Six years ago, the human resources administrator received the ‘heartbreaking news’ that she had stage three ovarian cancer after scans found two grapefruit-sized tumors on each ovary.
Despite the best efforts of the doctors, the diagnosis is terminal and the doctors cannot confirm exactly how much time he has left.
Now Alisi, originally from New Zealand but living in Brisbane, has put together a ‘timeless list’ consisting of everything she wants to do while she can.
Before her diagnosis, Alisi, now 30, experienced bloating in her lower abdomen, was tired “all the time” and her menstrual cycle was “irregular.”
But he ruled out the symptoms because he assumed he was “too young to have serious health problems.”
Six years ago, Alisi Jack-Kaufusi was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer (pictured in early 2019 as her hair began to grow back)
Now Alisi, originally from New Zealand but living in Brisbane, has put together a ‘timeless list’ made up of everything she wants to do while she can.
During a visit to a GP in October 2017, he mentioned that he had been bleeding for about a month and that the blood was clotted and dark.
After undergoing multiple blood tests, an MRI and a CT scan, she was scheduled for a biopsy after the doctor noted that “something was blocking” her ovaries.
Alisi’s world came crashing down in December 2017 after she was told she had ovarian cancer at age 24, given the average age of women diagnosed with the disease is 64.
“Once I heard about ovarian cancer, I looked at mom and froze. It felt like the room went silent and all I could see was the doctor’s mouth moving. It was all just a blur. I just remember saying to the doctor, “No, this can’t be because I’m only 24, you have the wrong person,” Alisi recalled.
“Being told by the medical team that I contracted this disease 30 years earlier was difficult to process and still is. When you think cancer, you think old.
When she was diagnosed, the cancer had spread outside of her ovaries.
“I had to have a full hysterectomy and unfortunately they couldn’t save any eggs. At 20, the last thing on your mind is accepting the fact that you can’t have your own biological children. I felt robbed,” she said.
‘It feels like all my desires and goals are compressed into a smaller time frame. I may not die tomorrow, but I may not live long enough to have long-term plans.
Alisi has put together a ‘timeless list’ (pictured) consisting of 72 activities and travel plans, from seeing the Northern Lights to whitening your teeth and going on a safari in South Africa.
So far he has gone skydiving, flown in a fighter plane (pictured), and ridden bareback on the beach.
“Riding on the beach on horseback was very therapeutic, and flying in the fighter plane was so exciting. I felt so free and could forget everything for half an hour,” he said.
Alisi has put together a “timeless list” of 72 activities and travel plans, from seeing the Northern Lights to whitening your teeth and going on a safari in South Africa.
“Riding on the beach on horseback was very therapeutic, and flying in the fighter plane was so exciting. I felt so free and could forget everything for half an hour,” he said.
Alisi also wants to travel to Tonga to swim with the whales, since that is where her family is from, and bungee jumping in New Zealand.
While she’s started on the list, she’s not sure if she’ll have enough time to complete it.
“My only regret is that I didn’t go to the doctor sooner to get my symptoms checked, so I put it off for about three months,” she said.
‘The doctors were great, but I really put off making an appointment. And I had never heard of ovarian cancer before my diagnosis.
“I was so shocked and upset and scared of what the future would be like for me.”
Fortunately, he had had the support of his family throughout the ordeal.
“My only regret is that I didn’t go to the doctor sooner to get my symptoms checked, so I put it off for about three months,” he said.
In sharing her story, Alisa wanted to remind other women living with cancer to just “take each day as it comes” (they quit at age 20 before diagnosis and right after).
