‘Let me be your miracle’: Amanda Phillips has defied death for a decade
Amanda Phillips was diagnosed with stage four cancer and told she had weeks to live. That was a decade ago.
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Amanda Phillips has been defying death for the last decade, keeping her stage four breast cancer in “check”.
The 49-year-old said for her having cancer is like a game of chess and although she’s had the upper hand on her terminal diagnosis for the last 10 years the artist received news last month the cancer had spread again.
Recent scans showed Ms Phillips’ sternum had been infiltrated by cancer, so much so it fractured from the pressure.
A few weeks ago she began a new “next-generation” chemotherapy called Enhertu in hopes to keep the cancer at bay.
“Let’s get this back in checkmate again,” the Modbury woman said.
Ms Phillips was first diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer back in October 2013 when she was 39 years old.
Her doctor passed her a box of tissues when they delivered the life-altering news.
“I pushed the box of tissues away,” she said.
“I had tears streaming down my face and I looked straight at my oncologist and I said ‘let me be your miracle’.”
She had noticed a pea-sized lump protruding from her breast before she went to the doctor.
“It was sort of like Princess and the Pea, it was very small but it was very significant,” she said.
Scans revealed the lump was cancerous and it had already spread to her spine.
Doctors had no hope Ms Phillips would survive months, let alone a decade.
Ms Phillips who works as a director, choreographer, performer and artist does not call her health battle a “journey”.
“To me, life is the journey, this is just something that’s happening in my life,” she said.
“I don’t define myself by my cancer, I’m more than my cancer … I don’t want it to define me.”
Since the day of her initial diagnosis Ms Phillips has attended Royal Adelaide Hospital’s oncology day centre every three weeks for treatment.
“Once you’re stage four your treatment is indefinite … stage four is a train ride, there is no remission.
“I know that I’m standing in grace … I’m very grateful to be here … I have no intention of turning my back on life.”
Whenever she sits in the “chemo chair” she’s reminded “how precious life is”.
“I do feel like I have an angel on my shoulder,” she said.
“Every day since the diagnosis there’s been that reminder that there’s not much that separates us from life and death.”
“Your life is short, we all know that … so how do you make an impact with the time we’ve got because time is finite.
“We all leave our mark, we all leave our trace and so it really makes me think about what impact I can leave through my art or my person.
“What are we remembered by? What makes life memorable? How can we leave a legacy, even if that legacy is kindness to another human.
“I do think about that often, daily in fact.”
If you’d like to support Ms Phillips, click here.
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