How a daughter's love for her mum will help thousands with blood cancer

"I was very, very worried, and very anxious. I didn't know what to think," the 49-year-old told the Daily Liberal.

"[I] burst into tears and of course you do, and then you pull together when you go home, so you're not upset in front of anybody else."

Ms Farr went to her doctor for tests at the urging of her workmates after they realised something was wrong.

"I started coming out with massive bruises all over my body, not really knowing how I got them because I couldn't remember bumping into anything," she said.

"But they were in really random places where you don't tend to bump yourself."

Ms Farr went to the doctors at lunch time for a blood test, and when the results came back that afternoon, the GP told her she had to go to hospital.

"I had further bloods up there, and at that time, I still didn't know what was going on because the GP didn't actually tell me," she said.

" ... Then they proceeded to tell me that afternoon that I needed to present myself at the cancer clinic the next morning."

Her doctor at the clinic got straight to the point.

"[He] said 'no beating around the bush, you've got leukaemia'."

After a bone marrow biopsy in Sydney, Ms Farr was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APML), which her doctor said was "quite rare but it's a treatable leukaemia which has good results".

Her treatment involved flying to Sydney to spend a week every month for nine months in hospital - and now she is leukaemia-free. These days, she has blood tests every six months for peace of mind.

"[My doctor] said it was the best leukaemia that I have, out of a bad bunch," Ms Farr said.

"She said probably 20 years ago, they definitely wouldn't have had the treatment that they have these days, and the outcomes would be a lot different to what they are today."

Ms Farr has three children, and her eldest daughter, Georgia, was only 12 at the time her mum was away every month being treated for blood cancer in Sydney.

But the experience stuck with Georgia and in June 2023, at the age of 16, she came home from school and asked her mum if she would mind her shaving her beautiful long hair for the Leukaemia Foundation's World's Greatest Shave.

Georgia's workplace, Club Dubbo, was supportive of the initiative and hosted an event there, during which Ms Farr shaved her daughter's head and they raised $8000 for the Leukaemia Foundation.

Georgia, who is soon to turn 17, said the period of time her mum was going through cancer treatment was "very weird". It happened "very fast" and then her mum was away a lot in Sydney, at the hospital.

"I just remember a lot of being helped out by my auntie. She would help out with chores around the house, and sometimes my brother's primary school, some of the parents would make dinner for us," Georgia told the Daily Liberal.

The teenager had wanted to shave her head for a while when she decided to talk to her mum about it.

"I thought, I should do this for a cause rather than shaving it out of nowhere. I asked mum if that was OK and she approved of it," she said.

Georgia's mum was reportedly "a little surprised" but "very supportive" of what her daughter wanted to do.

The youngster's message to other kids who are thinking of participating in the World's Greatest Shave is "just do it".

"It's very fun and rewarding knowing you're helping a lot of people out by doing so," she said.

"At the end of the day, you're going to look great even if you've got a shaved head or not".

Georgia's long hair was used to make a wig for a cancer patient. The money she raised will go towards research into blood cancer treatments - such as the type that saved her mum.

Australians living with blood cancer need the support of the Leukaemia Foundation. The organisation urges the community to sign up to shave, cut or colour their hair for World's Greatest Shave by visiting www.worldsgreatestshave.com