Finding strength through the struggle

By Sheree Hoddinett  

When Jade Sharp found out she had an aggressive form of breast cancer in May last year, her entire world came crashing down. At the age of 43 and living a healthy and fit lifestyle, Jade was in complete shock. One of the biggest things that has kept Jade pushing forward is the amazing support she has received from the Bribie community and beyond.  

The CrossFit Bribie Island community has cheered Jade on through workouts and offered lifts to appointments. Friends made dinners for her family, drove her to appointments and sat with her for chemo and scans. K Beauty generously provided free access to red light therapy and others made lunches, as well as offering to help with homework, gardening and cleaning.  

Then, on Saturday February 15, more than 100 people donned pink and took part in a workout in support of Jade and her family to help cover the costs of treatment. Organised by Emily and Ell from I am Kind Movement, along with Mason and Jodie from CrossFit Bribie Island, the fundraising event had Jade feeling overwhelmed with the great amount of support, leaving her with tears in her eyes for the entire workout.  

“So many local businesses rallied behind it,” Jade said. “Ikigai Café supported the event and Bribie Island Holiday Hub matched all the workout donations, helping to raise over $10,000.  “Even perfect strangers from the CrossFit community and the Bribie Island community came together for me and it was truly heart-warming. Moments like these remind me of the incredible power of community, kindness and human connection and just how special our Bribie Island community truly is.”  

Jade thought 2024 was going to be her year and she had just started university for the first time, but it all changed very quickly when she was told she had Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. The diagnosis would require a harsh treatment plan, including six months of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and 25 rounds of radiation (which has just finished), along with 12 months of immunotherapy – with four months left to go! But along with actually facing the prospect of being sick, Jade highlights how hard the financial side can be.  

“Being sick is expensive,” she said. “I will be out of pocket over $25,000 and that’s not including loss of wages, petrol, parking. Radiation is not covered by private health, I had to outlay $31,000 for some of it to then be returned by Medicare.  “I will shout it from the rooftops that all women, despite their age should be self-checking their breasts and if they’re worried, see their doctor. Women aged 40+ should have access to free mammograms. I have spent thousands of dollars over the years getting ultrasounds and mammograms because of various lumps. Finances should not be a hurdle for women to receiving excellent, timely care.” 

Being told you have cancer is not an easy situation to face and Jade admits that her first thoughts weren’t about herself, but about her family.  

 “I thought I was going to die. It took me a couple of weeks to shift my mindset, to reframe my thoughts and to focus on moving forward,” she explains. “Thankfully, sport had already taught me the discipline and resilience I needed to face this battle. I knew the human body was incredibly robust and I understood the power of movement. Exercise helps reduce the side effects of chemotherapy, so I kept training at CrossFit Bribie Island. Slowly, my hair began to fall out. I looked sick, but I felt strong. I was handling chemotherapy well and I credit that to the years of training that taught me how to push through discomfort while respecting my body’s limits.” 

 With sport a big part of her life (you may recognise Jade from the Bribie Island Movement & Strength Club), she turned to the one thing she knew would greatly help her.  

“Sport had also instilled structure in the way I approached challenges, so I applied that same mindset here. I wrote down a mantra: Strength through struggle. It became my anchor,” Jade said. “But an uncomfortable truth that I’ve found amongst my fellow cancer patients throughout the past 10 months is that strength isn’t always about grinding through. Sometimes, it’s about recognising that maybe you don’t have this. That maybe you won’t be okay. And that’s not failure, that’s reality. Accepting that reality, rather than resisting it, is what stops suffering from becoming unbearable. There is a quiet power in surrendering to what is rather than being crushed by what should be. The moment you relax into uncertainty instead of fighting it, you make space for clarity, adaptation and ironically, strength. Because true strength isn’t found in pretending you’re invincible. It’s found in standing up, shaky but willing and facing the next challenge anyway.” 

Although she’s already faced so much in such a short space of time, Jade’s journey is far from over. She will remain under the care of oncologists for another five years, but there’s no doubt she will continue to use her strength and courage to do what she can for herself and others.  

 “The biggest hurdle that I had to overcome throughout all of this was my own mindset and I learned that I can make myself miserable, or I can make myself strong. The amount of effort is the same,” Jade said. “The lesson I choose to take is that life’s about leaning into the unknown, rolling with the changes and finding meaning in every moment, even when the future feels uncertain. In the end, life can be a tragedy or a comedy and how incredible it is that we get to decide how we see and live it.”