Save Sally Obermeder

Last Thursday I attended a fundraiser for a woman who is both a friend and an inspiration. Her name is Sally Obermeder. Some may know her as the stunning Today Tonight Entertainment reporter, others might remember her as a presenter on Sydney Weekender but this story, the one she is living is the one you'll remember from now on.

In a celebration of her life and in a bid to keep her living; her friend and my boss Sarah Stinson, Executive Producer of The Morning Show organized a fundraiser to help Sally raise enough money to fight as best she could to beat cancer.

Sally's story is almost unfathomable. After years of trying to have a baby, Sally finally resorted to IVF treatments to help her on her way. After years of struggle, she fell pregnant and then the day before she gave birth to baby Anabelle, the unthinkable happened.  She was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.

For the eight months that followed (she’s through four months now) she would undergo gruelling chemotherapy, radiotherapy and is considering a double mastectomy. She describes chemotherapy as “beyond brutal” and days after her debilitating and crippling chemotherapy she is unable to mother her newborn baby.

With funds rapidly diminishing, in one of the grandest gestures of love I've ever seen, Sarah Stinson organized a fundraiser. Over 500 guests joined together to celebrate Sally. Guests sent love positivity and importantly, funds to launch her on her way to better health.

This was love in the most flamboyant display I'd ever seen. Sally was surrounded by her husband Marcus, her sister, and her colleagues and even shared company with strangers who were moved by her story.

Marcus held his beautiful wife closely, showing her how striking she still is. She has a smile that lights up a room, a spirit that fills your heart with so much love and a will that would inspire the weakest of souls to keep going. In her speech, she thanked him for his unconditional love. Saying “if I hasn't married you, I would have married you again.”

There was not a dry eye in the room.

The love there was real, was intense and  was healing, I wish it could have been in the medical sense.

Sally in her thank you speech wept as the club lights in the Beresford went up and she saw over 500 faces cheering her on.

“I just want to say thank you because while Chemotherapy is what heals my illness, it’s your love that heals my soul,” she said.

Her grief was profound and for a night - it was shared by a room full of open hearts and thankfully open wallets.

You can read more about Sally’s battle at these links.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/love-flows-for-today-tonight-reporter-sally-obermeder/story-e6frewz0-1226281010116

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/insider/sally-obermeder-is-simply-inspirational-writes-ros-reines/story-e6frewt9-1226281495595

http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/news/newsstories/8392043/new-mum-sally-obermeders-breast-cancer-battle

While every week I write about love, this week I encourage you to show it by donating to one of the most important causes I’ve ever supported. Sally deserves the best chance of survival and you can help by donating at this link.

You wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone, but you can help heal it by donating generously and helping Sally reach her target. It will help her pay for her treatments and give her the best chance at surviving for her newborn baby, Anabelle.

everydayhero.com.au/sallyo

Who says you can't mix work with pleasure?

I started this blog at the end of last year as a creative outlet because I don't always get to write about things that interest and excite me in my job.

This week I was lucky enough to get to produce two segments on two topics of great interest to me and you (my regular readers)!

This is short and sweet because the pkgs do the talking for me.

The first was about a woman who I interviewed over the phone who was on the road to marital bliss before her fiance just weeks before her wedding broke up with her. Left with all the gifts of her relationship, she pondered what to do with them when her step mother thought the idea was a website waiting to happen...and that's what she did.

Meghan Perry with her step mother, Marie, co-created the website exboyfriendjewelry.com (pop onto the site, there are some great steals on there). The site catapulted to success, now reaching up to a million visitors daily and the site has received global coverage (even making it on to The Morning Show). Take a look at Larry and Kylie's interview with her here.

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/the-morning-show/video/-/watch/26308486/diamonds-are-a-girls-ex-friend/


The other story I got to work on was a chat with Psychologist Dr Janet Hall on the difference between lust and love. Lots of research is dedicated to separating fact from fiction or hormones from love. Here, Dr Janet discusses the difference pointing out that lust is all about what you can get from somebody else, whereas love is about what you can give to your partner. Take a look at this one too.

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/the-morning-show/video/-/watch/26308748/lust-at-first-sight/

Some great food for thought.

As always, thanks for reading and watching.

X

Tale of a TV Appearance

I went on the Morning Show this week to talk about being celibate. If ever you would like to attract the jobless freaks of the nation – do what I did!

I won't lie, as much as I would never look twice at the men who have aimed high and hoped for love through Facebook, I will admit, I've enjoyed seeing the few hopefuls email me through the site, convinced that they had experienced love at first sight and shared my ideals on having sex after marriage.

A message to all; Facebook is not a dating website! I will not R.S.V.P to your dream-date, we will not fall madly in love online without me seeing you face to face (and I won’t see you face to face if you look anything like your profile pic) and if you think I’d give complete access to my photos, friends and thoughts to a stranger you are more dumb than that Hungry Jacks’ uniform makes you look.

Here’s the clip if you’d like to see what Larry, Kylie, sexologist Nikki Goldstein and I spoke about.

 http://au.tv.yahoo.com/the-morning-show/video/-/watch/26122143/waiting-for-the-wedding-night/

 For everyone who has seen it, HUGE thanks for being so supportive and encouraging (I feel like I'm Oprah after all of this praise). It’s just a tiny step towards my dream career (and maybe love… I can dream).

When Paula, the producer of the segment prepared the briefing notes on this chat she wrote what I think is my finest report card yet:

  “Miriam has plenty of opportunities with men she meets, and is immediately honest about her opinions towards sex.  She says if they can't cope with her decision then it wasn't meant to be.
 

She wants to wait for her husband and sees this as a measure of the love she'll hold for him.

 It doesn't matter if her husband isn't a virgin when they meet - as long as he is then happy to abstain until their wedding night.

She doesn't feel she's missing out on experiences

 Miriam hopes there's a nice guy out there who has the same attitude to life she does - she's keen to meet him!”

She was right and this story is still evolving.

At the end of my chat with the Morning Show hosts, Kylie commented - "as an older woman, I feel like it's my duty to tell Miriam that when you get married you don't have sex, so the poor girl will spend her whole life without it." It was a funny follow up on television but in my blog, I always get the last word. 

If I had had the chance to reply my response  would have been that perhaps sex stops in marriage for previously sexually active couples because they've already been there and done that. 

In my marriage, I'll be introducing an exciting and new aspect to my relationship and we'll be infatuated with each other all over again because of it. If he's not experienced (then he's a rare gem)and our first time will be a laugh but we'll have a lifetime to perfect it.  At least we'll both rest securely in the fact that he'll be the best I ever had....everytime.