‘Each day is a gift’: Why Samuel Johnson became a postie and how he keeps moving forward

Raising funds and awareness for cancer research with Love Your Sister remains his life’s purpose — as the charity hits a $20m milestone — but Samuel Johnson is also embracing his childhood passions by “going backwards to go forwards”.

Cancer warrior and Gold Logie winner Samuel Johnson has revealed a personal plan to take better care of himself is behind him taking on a job as the postie at Tallarook, a country township of 900 about 80 minutes north of Melbourne.

“I only ride down two streets but it is a 32km long street and I can fit all the mail in the front basket on my bike, even though I have got saddlebags,” the TV star revealed.

Johnson, whose long list of TV and film credits includes Secret Life Of Us, Molly (the Molly Meldrum mini-series) and cop drama Rush, is also the driving force behind the Love Your Sister cancer charity which will top more than $20m in donations next month. But he says his new job is driven by a philosophy of “going backwards to go forwards”.

Fuelled by hot chocolate and unlimited marshmallows from the local store – “I love me a sugar fix because I have quit most things, but not sugar” – Johnson delivers the mail three times a week as part of his self-care strategy.

Johnson says he was never a morning person but each day is a gift. Picture: Mark Stewart

“I do it for a very specific reason; I call it going backwards to go forwards,” he said. “I look back to what I liked before – beer, bongs and boobs – before the chaos of adulthood and before my sister Connie got sick with a childhood cancer at 11.

“What did I like back then? I was a pretty effective paperboy. I was pulling in more than $100 a week. I had multiple rounds; I did the local paper, the Sunday paper, the daily paper and the pamphlets.

“So part of my self-care these days is reinstituting what I liked as a boy, and it is another measure I have put in place to ensure I don’t stay up too late the night before.”

Johnson has been doing the round for six months. “I was never a morning person,” he said. “Now when the sun comes up I am riding through the suggestion of the day and getting some much-needed private time because it is a very public role I play (with Love Your Sister). Each day is a gift.”

Johnson, 47, understands that gift more than most, having nearly died after being struck by a car in Melbourne in June 2021.

He has made an extraordinary recovery from the horror accident that left him with a raft of injuries including a fractured skull, fractured neck vertebra, internal and head injuries, and post-traumatic amnesia. He now calls it “the good accident”.

Johnson says his accident will ‘always the good accident’ because of how his life has changed. Picture: Mark Stewart

“I am as good as can be, I am playing tennis again, I have got my licence, I am back at work,” he said.

“As far as the brain injury, for the experts that work at the Epworth (Hospital), I am a good news story. A lot of people don’t recover the way I have. I am not back to normal by any stretch, but in a way it was a good accident.

“Even though I spent 18 months in rehab and six months getting home, it got me to the place that I was going quicker than if I had not had the accident. I cut out most everything in my life, be that energy drinks or fast food or anything more extreme. I was cutting it all out anyway, but it accelerated my progress.

“I was able to come out of rehab as different a person as you can be.

“I get up really early now, I probably read four times as many books as I used to read, I have done thousands of kilometres on my bike, and it is a much better life since the

Love Your Sister grew from Johnson being challenged by Connie, who was fighting her third cancer diagnosis, to raise $1m for research into the devastating disease.

Love Your Sister remains Johnson’s driving passion, purpose and commitment.

He founded the charity with his sister Connie in 2012 and it is about to mark its milestone of $20m in donations with events in Sydney and Melbourne.

The charity remains committed to supporting research and advocating for precision medicine for cancer patients.

“Obviously that is a huge and important milestone to me,” Johnson said.

“Something bigger is happening and the true joy for me is in watching the world that me and my sister dreamt of become real. Thirteen years ago no one had heard of precision medicine, now everybody wants it.

“We were fighting all cancers years ago and we were pushing precision medicine for our cancer patients from day dot.

“It was not hard for us to find out that’s what we need to do, because all of the scientists and researchers had the same answer to the question, which is ‘What do you need?’ and they all said ‘We need precision medicine, now’.”

Precision medicine tailors treatment to individual characteristics, including genetics, environment and lifestyle, in the hope of better treatment outcomes.

Johnson was named Victoria’s Australian of the Year in 2018. Picture: Mark Stewart

Love Your Sister grew from Johnson being challenged by Connie, who was fighting her third cancer diagnosis, to raise $1m for research into the devastating disease.

Challenge accepted, Johnson raised $1.4m by riding a unicycle around Australia, beginning in 2013 and ending in February 2014.

“I thought after the unicycle I was done and dusted and I would get on with life and then my sister said ‘What’s next?’,” he said.

“She said a sentence that echoes in my head nearly every day, ‘Sam, this is over when we stop losing our loved ones to cancer’.”

Johnson and his sister, Connie, who passed away in 2017.

Connie died in 2017 and Johnson and the Love Your Sister supporters, known as the “Village”, have continued the fight to vanquish cancer.

“Until our families are safe I am not done,” he said. “Connie left me with a lot of precious breadcrumbs and a lot of her sentences and sentiments have stayed with me, they reverberate inside me.

“I know for a fact she would be bursting with pride right now. We were worried we would lose Love Your Sister after we lost her and we worked really hard on making sure that did not happen.

“Charities on average only last eight years, so it was all about building Love Your Sister to where it is now. She would be impossibly proud.”

Johnson said he was incredibly grateful to the Love Your Sister community for making the $20m milestone possible.

“They are the people who have built this rainbow. I owe them forever,” he said. “So many people who have helped raise our $20m are tributing their lost loves.

“So much of what we do is fuelled by grief, and we want to put something positive around something so horribly negative. ”

Johnson at the the 2017 Logie Awards at Crown. Picture: AAP

His work raising funds and awareness for cancer research with Love Your Sister led to Johnson being named Victoria’s Australian of the Year in 2018 –
just months after Connie’s death – an award that he holds dear to his heart. “I just turned up pleased to be there and when my name was mentioned I burst into tears,” he said.

“I think that was the moment where my grief for my sister started.

“There are two shiny things that mean something to me; the Victorian of the Year and Research Australia’s Advocate of the Year awards.

Johnson says he is incredibly thankful to the Love Your Sister community for making the $20m milestone possible. Picture: Mark Stewart

“The OAM, the Gold Logie, the (Dancing with the Stars) Mirror Ball trophy, I’m more than happy to accept them and put them in my study and take a little bit of pride in them, but they don’t hit me in the heart like those two.”

The Love Your Sister $20m celebration will be held at Royal Melbourne Golf Club on May 5.

“As a proud Victorian it is only right that I have my $20m moment in Victoria at a place where my dad wrote the history,” Johnson said.

“Dad was a sports historian. He would renovate houses during the day and write commissioned sports histories at night. He wrote the history of the VAFA, he wrote the history of the Australian Open Tennis Championships and he wrote the history of the Royal Melbourne Golf Club among others. He wrote about 15 books and brought me up without a television.”

https://www.loveyoursister.org/

Q&A with Samuel Johnson

First job

I was a golf ball collecting entrepreneur. I used to go to Royal Melbourne, collect the balls and go across the road to Sandringham Golf Course and sell them for $2.

Five people you’d invite to a dinner party

Luke Heggie, Kris Kristofferson, Oscar Wilde, Dolly Dalrymple and my dad.

Book everyone should read

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

If you could live anywhere in the world besides here, where would it be — and why

I would live in the Jubilee Lake Caravan Park in Daylesford. It is like living in a postcard.

First concert, dream concert

My first concert was Bruce Springsteen when I was about 11. Dream concert, I would have to say Kris Kristofferson.

What advice would you give your 18-year-old self

Eat the lychees, they might look like eyeballs but you are going to love them.

One thing people didn’t know about you/hidden talent

I love the diabolo. It goes back to circus skills when I was a kid and unicycling and juggling and stuff. I also took sign language classes recently. I am really bad at it, but I keep trying.

Best birthday present you’ve ever received

Having a birthday ... how lucky are we, right? When you get more mature you start to appreciate it more. Birthdays are an amazing thing now.

Best piece of advice you’ve received

“I don’t care if you bullshit me, just don’t bullshit yourself” — from my dad.

The other best piece of advice was Oscar Wilde: “Live the wonderful life that is in you, let nothing be lost upon you, be always searching for new sensations, be afraid of nothing, the world belongs to you for a season.”

This year I’m most looking forward to ...

The $20m milestone.

The one thing I love the most about Victoria

The Jubilee Lake Caravan Park. I keep going back there, I swim there, it is my special place.

Originally published as ‘Each day is a gift’: Why Samuel Johnson became a postie and how he keeps moving forward