How family and friends have rallied behind this Canberra agent’s cancer fight

A single mother of three teenage boys, Ms Halloran admitted that the initial months following her cancer diagnosis were a whirlwind for her and her family. Just six months prior, her father had passed away, and her illness added to what had been “a hell of a year in a lot of ways”. 

Despite the major disruptions to life caused by such a diagnosis, Ms Halloran said she was adamant on controlling the controllables in her life and setting an example for her three boys, expressing that even in spite of “awful” news, “you can turn it around and make it something really positive”. 

She shared with REB that once she had wrapped her head around it all, she felt “really lucky.”

“You don’t normally feel lucky when you’re diagnosed with breast cancer. [But] I think my prognosis is so good because so many people have gotten behind the cause in the past. I feel like I’m reaping the benefits of past people getting behind this, and in five years’ time, other people will be reaping the benefits of past people getting behind it now,” Ms Halloran said. 

She proudly detailed how her three children responded to her decision to shave her head — something her eldest son was initially really rocked by — but eventually, he came around.

“When I said to him [her eldest] that I’m starting to lose my hair, I can’t avoid it [and] I’m going to cut it off this weekend, he said, ‘I’m not sure I want to be a part of celebrating that.’

“I said, ‘mate, it’s not. It’s not celebrating it. It’s controlling how it happens and how I let it affect me.’ I took him a little while to muse over it, and then he came back on the day and said, ‘I want to shave my head as well’,” Ms Halloran said.

On the day she planned to shave her head, all three of her children revealed that they would be shaving their heads in solidarity.  

“That just meant the world that they were in my corner and taking that on,” she explained. 

The occasion was the spark that spurred James Kirkland, director of sales at Upside Realty — Ms Halloran’s employer — into a similar showcase of support and solidarity for someone who is “part of the fabric at Upside and displays all the values we try to live and work by”. 

After initially learning of the “rattling news”, Mr Kirkland contemplated how best the brand could get on board and contribute to her battle. 

“Not that she needs motivation,” he said. “She’s probably one of the most highly motivated individuals I’ve ever met.”

Mr Kirkland recounted how he approached the company’s executive team, including the founder and the chief executive officer, and posed the question: “If we can raise enough money, would everyone shave their heads?”

Their response? 

“They didn’t even blink,” he said. 

The team is raising money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation, which has a simple mission — to stop deaths from breast cancer. 

The brand set an initial fundraising target of $2,000 — which would see the entire Upside executive team, as well as other staff from their headquarters and sales department, shave their heads or dye their hair. 

“We very quickly got to $2,000, and so I re-proposed to the executive team that if we could get hit some other milestones, that they could start removing hair from other parts of the body,” he said.

“Again, no one hesitated.”

Mr Kirkland detailed how Ms Halloran was setting a fantastic example of resilience in times of strife to the team at Upside Realty and beyond. During September, when she entered her first round of treatment, Ms Halloran was the company’s number one salesperson for the month.

“That is sending a clear message to us all that determination, courage, and bravery in times that it is needed is super inspiring,” he said.

When asked how she felt when she saw what the team at Upside Realty were doing, Ms Halloran was adamant that she was “both surprised and not surprised”. 

“It’s just the sort of thing that they would do, but at the same time, I obviously had no idea what to expect. 

“It’s a very isolating experience [battling breast cancer] unless someone has been through it, and even if they’ve been through it, it’s a different experience for everybody. So, you do sort of feel a bit isolated even when you are supported because only you know how you’re feeling — so to have them throw their weight behind me and give me a few things to look forward to, to get me through each month, it’s something I look forward to when there’s not a lot to look forward to,” she said.

Outside of the overwhelming support that she has received from her family, friends, colleagues, and the wider industry itself, Ms Halloran outlined her biggest lesson has been that “there’s always a silver lining; you’ve just got to find it”.

You can donate to the Upside Realty campaign here.