Mother-of-three who moved to Australia is determined to make family memories after incurable diagnosis
A mother-of-three, who formerly lived in Northamptonshire and now resides in Australia, is determined to make happy family memories following her incurable diagnosis.
It was in November 2017 when Kate Hardman was first diagnosed with breast cancer, eight months after she had given birth to her son.
She was lucky to catch the cancer early due to breastfeeding and underwent a mastectomy on her left side, radiotherapy and was put on a hormone blocker for five years.
Kate received her diagnosis when the family travelled back from Australia to the UK for an extended holiday following the birth of her son, and she had her treatment here too.
The family ended up in Australia as Kate’s husband Kriss travelled there in his teenage years and fell in love with the country. Kate lived in Brackley for around two decades until 2013, before the pair moved to near Buckingham and then to Australia in November 2014.
Following Kate’s treatment for breast cancer, the family returned to Australia and carried on with their lives – until she was diagnosed for a second time, while pregnant with their third child at 22 weeks in February 2023.
This time the tumour was on her right side and there was also cancer in the skin left behind from the previous surgery on her left.
Kate went in for another surgery and after two chemotherapy sessions, she began to feel a pain in her neck which steadily got worse. It was confirmed that the cancer had spread to her neck and it had broken a bone.
After undergoing surgery on her neck and changing the course of her treatment, Kate gave birth to her third healthy child at 35 weeks.
The mother-of-three was then able to have the scans she could not have while pregnant and this confirmed her cancer was stage four and incurable.
Kate continues to live with the condition and her treatment consists of chemotherapy, hormone pills, injections and transfusions.
Kate and Kriss’ children are now two, four and eight years old and when she was well enough, they decided to make as many happy memories as they could by travelling as a family.
They are currently travelling Australia in their campervan, with stops at various hospitals for medical appointments, scans and injections. This will not stop them from making their final and lasting memories.
The family are huge rugby fans and decided to follow the Lions tour. This formed part of their campervan tour of Australia, which will continue for the next 18 months while they rent out their house in Darwin.
Some of the other locations visited since Kate’s incurable diagnosis in 2023 include Toronto, Niagara Falls, New York, Virginia, New Zealand, Canada and Disneyland in Los Angeles.
“The cancer diagnosis gave us a kick up the butt,” Kate told the Chronicle & Echo. “The one good thing to take from it is that we should do what we want as who knows how long we have left. We wanted to make it as special as possible with the children.”
The family set up social media pages under ‘The Hardmans’ to document Kate’s health journey and their subsequent travel plans.
“Our motto is strength in adversity,” said Kate. “We wanted to show how we are living with cancer and being on the road. We want to inspire people to get out there, live and take the plunge to do what you want. It’s been so well-received.”
They currently have more than 68,000 followers on Instagram, more than 73,000 followers on Facebook and Kate said: “The power of social media is incredible.
“We met so many people on the Lions tour who follow us, and they shared kind words of how we’ve affected their lives. It’s heartwarming and makes you realise you’re doing a good thing.”
Though Kate’s condition remains stage four and incurable, her medication is keeping her stable and she says she is “doing really well” at the moment.