"Shelly was my age and just like me, she had a list of things she wanted to achieve."

I recently interviewed a woman named Sandra Jackson, whose daughter, Shelly, passed away at almost my age.

What struck me during our talk was that — just like myself and so many young women around me — Shelly had made big plans for her future, and didn’t want to waste any time in ticking off her big life goals.

In fact, the 22-year-old remedial massage therapy student had so many plans – which included moving to England, finding her soul mate and writing a book – that she often wrote them into a list.

“She’d always had a bucket list; it’s just something she’s always done,” her mother Sandra Jackson explains.

“It was because she wanted to achieve things in life.”

Just as an FYI, you should know that this post is sponsored by Cancer Council Queensland. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100 per cent authentic and written in their own words.

But early last year, a cruel discovery threatened Shelly’s plans for her future. She started losing weight and passing out at work, so she had some tests carried out – and, in mid-January last year, received an unsettling phone call.

“The doctor said, ‘Shelly, I need you to come to the surgery and I need you to bring someone with you’,” Ms Jackson recalls.

More tests were conducted — and within days, tumours were found on Shelly’s liver.

The young Queensland woman was diagnosed with an advanced form of bowel cancer, and started chemotherapy just days later.

“We were all very surprised when we found out it was bowel cancer at such a young age,” Ms Jackson says.

“It was such a big shock for everybody.”

But even throughout her course of chemotherapy, Ms Jackson recalls, Shelly’s trademark positive attitude was on show.

“She’d make jokes… she’d just love to have fun,” Ms Jackson says of her daughter.

“Her smile sort of said everything about her, really.”

On the day she was discharged from hospital, Shelly ticked off one of her bucket list items: her wish to “sit on a beach, close (her) eyes, breathe and take in the breeze.”

“She missed the sea breeze, and the fresh air after being cooped up in hospital,” Ms Jackson explains.

“She needed that to keep herself going, and to keep her positive.”

But, six months after Shelly started chemotherapy, a meeting with her team of doctors revealed that Shelly’s prognosis was not good.

“They decided, really, it was more about her being comfortable,” Ms Jackson says. “We were just hoping we might get more time to have with her.”

But tragically, Shelly’s time had almost run out. The young woman moved to a palliative care unit, where she “just sort of slipped away slowly,” Ms Jackson says.

On the 27^th of June, Shelly lost consciousness. She passed away the following morning with her mother by her side. Almost a year later, Ms Jackson isn’t just mourning the loss of her child; she’s grieving for the fact that Shelly didn’t have time to see and experience the world in all the ways she’d planned to. “She wanted to live,” Ms Jackson says. “She had things to do.”

So in Shelly’s honour, her family are working through the young woman’s final bucket list without her.

“It’s been a mission to do everything that Shelly would have wanted done,” Ms Jackson says.

“Everything we have the opportunity to do, we’ll do it.”

Shelly’s 28-year-old brother James recently took a hot air balloon trip, completing one item from the list.

The family also revisited Shelly’s wish to relax by the sea, by celebrating her birthday last year with a cake at Burleigh beach. And later this month, to mark the one-year anniversary of the young woman’s passing, relatives from New Zealand are joining Shelly’s mother and siblings on a trip to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

But the family’s main goal now is to tackle “probably the biggest thing on the list,” Ms Jackson says – that of making a difference.

“It’s the one thing that keeps us going, to actually try to make a difference somewhere,” Ms Jackson says.

“Shelly just wanted to make people aware that this type of cancer isn’t just about being old, or being over a certain age… She wanted people to give money so we can end up with no cancers in the world,” she says.

Underpinning that wish was vibrant Shelly’s genuine love of all life had to offer – and the desire for more time to do those things.

“She was all about living life… That’s why it’s so important to get the message out there,” Ms Jackson says.

“It’s what Shelly would have wanted.”

Watch this beautiful short video of Sandra speaking about her daughter …

If Shelly’s cancer had been caught in time, she might still be here.

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