As she joins WHO on a sunny Sydney winter morning, Samantha Jade knows she has a lot to be thankful for. The singer is just days away from jetting off to LA to record new music for an album, Love.Sick Volume 2, which she is planning to release later this year. And nine months after she tied the knot with husband Pat Handlin during an intimate ceremony in Italy, she’s well and truly loving life as a newlywed.
“We’d been living together for a while so you think that not that much will change,” Samantha exclusively tells us. “But it’s been really nice, being husband and wife. It feels like we are a real team.”
And as her thoughts now turn from wedding planning to planning the right time to start a family, there is a dark cloud that hangs over the 36-year-old singer and actress after she lost her mother, Jacqueline Gibbs, to cancer.
“It’s a horrible disease that takes loved ones and ruins families,” Samantha says. “Every time I go [to the doctor] for a check-up, it’s very scary. I assume the worst because I’ve seen it happen.”
Samantha lost her mum in mid-2014, just a few months after she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer which had spread to her liver. They still do not know where it originated.
“My mum was just such a special person who just lit up the room,” Samantha says. “She had this superpower of being able to build a person up and make them feel like a million bucks. I don’t know I’d have gotten so far with my music if it hadn’t been for her support.”
In the years since, Samantha has come to terms with the loss of her “best friend”. But the one thing she refuses to accept is that the disease, which is tragically estimated to affect around half of all Australians throughout their lifetime, is permanent.
That is why she has signed up to be an ambassador for the Cancer Council’s Daffodil Day on August 31. Last year, the day raised around $2.5 million that went towards research, cancer prevention and supporting those affected by the disease. This year, Samantha is hoping to help smash that target.
“The goal of the fundraising is to ultimately find a cure,” she says. “There is nothing in the world that I wish for more. There are so many people living with that dark cloud above their head and a cure is the only way to bring them peace.”
While most people know that they can support the cause by purchasing a beautiful bunch of bright yellow daffodils from a Cancer Council stall on the day, there are many other ways you can get involved. Participants are also encouraged to register a fundraiser online and hold events ranging from morning teas to casual dress days in your workplace while asking for a donation.
“Whatever you can do to help, whatever amount you can afford to donate is great,” Samantha says. “Every extra dollar in the kitty is one step closer to finally putting an end to cancer.”
Determined to continue making her mum proud, Samantha now makes an extra effort to live her life to the fullest, just as Jacqueline urged her, even from her hospital bed. It is bittersweet that the moments Samantha knows her mum would have loved best are now tinged with both joy and sorrow.
“I knew that my wedding day would be hard and having a baby [without her here] will be hard,” Samantha explains. “When I have occasions that I want to celebrate, I accept I will feel like an equal measure of sadness too. I always feel her with me, though, and on the big day I wore her wedding ring so [I] felt her presence there.”
Watch Below: Samantha Jade performs ‘Bounce’ at AGT Finale
The one thing Samantha is determined to never do is stop making music.
“Spending those last few months with my mum in the hospital, she was always encouraging me to get out and get back in the studio because she knew that was my passion,” she says. “My mum loved to dance, she was always the first one up on the dance floor, so I know she’d be really proud of me now for continuing on.”
The Cancer Council’s Daffodil Day is coming up on Thursday, August 31st. Visit Daffodil Day to register a fundraiser or make a donation.
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