A young Indigenous woman who was a child carer for her mentally ill mother and a Canberra mum whose five-year-old daughter died of a rare brain cancer, DIPG, have been honoured at Lifeline Canberra’s Women of Spirit awards today.
Rachel Fishlock has been named the Rising Woman of Spirit and Kathie Potts is the Woman of Spirit for 2022.
The Lifeline Canberra Women of Spirit Awards recognise women who have overcome adversity and gone on to make a positive contribution to our community, while inspiring others to do the same.
A young Yuin woman from Nowra NSW, Rachel now works in Canberra at Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit), the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing, mental health and suicide prevention.
From the age of 12, she became a fulltime career for her single mum, who had severe mental health complications, and experienced systemic neglect when her mother was frequently hospitalised. Through sheer determination, Rachel completed high school, and went on to found a successful international business, Lunar the Label. She closed this to pursue university education, graduating with a degree in social sciences in 2018 and has since earned a Master of Business Management.
Today, Rachel continues to push for policy reforms to ensure other child carers do not experience the neglect that she did.
Since Kathie Potts’ oldest daughter Annabelle died in 2019 after a two-year battle with brain cancer, the Canberra mum has continued advocating to raise awareness of DIPG and to successfully seek funding for research into the disease. Kathie fundraises for the Isabella and Marcus Foundation, and a PhD scholarship has been named in Annabelle’s honour to continue developing new treatments.
She works for Rare Cancers Australia and supported her six-year-old son William in climbing Mt Kosciuszko to raise over $10,000 for RCA.
Kathie has also been instrumental in developing a medicines access portal which ensures doctors can access information quickly, and she continues to advocate and support families who have a DIPG diagnosis.
All nominees in both categories were inspirational and worthy of recognition.
The other nominees included:
Rising Women of Spirit: Heidi Prowse, Jessika Spencer, and Robyn Smith.
Women of Spirit: Adele Fa’aeteete, Belinda Barnier, Cassandra Bennett, Dr Susan Boden, Elizabeth Coleman, Hilary Wardhaugh, Melita Flynn, and Serina Bird.
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