Lisa Greissl plans to get Lake Macquarie and Newcastle residents cooking this Summer, all in the name of a cause close to her heart.
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The 32-year-old mother from Macquarie Hills has just been named the face of a national Cure Cancer Australia campaign, BarbeCURE.
The campaign aims to get Aussies hosting barbecues to raise funds and spread awareness of the cancer charity.
Being named BarbeCURE ambassador comes less than 12 months since Ms Greissl was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer herself.
She endured a six-month battle with an aggressive Teratoma of the Sacrum, a tumour on the tailbone, and believes if not for her specialist the outcome may not have been so good.
Ms Greissl’s oncologist was Professor Martin Tatersall. His knowledge of cancer has benefited from Cure Cancer Australia research grants and Ms Greissl believed that helped with her amazing results to treatment.
She held a Gala Ball for Cure Cancer Australia in July as a thank you and is happy she now gets to continue supporting the charity through BarbeCURE.
“It’s been less than a year from my diagnosis to now,” she said. “The 18th of December was the final diagnosis and I started chemotherapy three days later.
“I feel fantastic now and I’m so grateful.
“I know cancer researchers are making discoveries and breakthroughs all of the time; we have to keep funding cancer research to continue making those discoveries and breakthroughs.”
The BarbeCURE campaign was launched at Parliament House in Canberra last week. It was a bipartisan event which included politicians Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce and Tanya Plibersbek.
Australian icon Paul Hogan has also been named ambassador for the summer-long campaign.
Ms Greissl wants to share her success story to show “investing in cancer research is necessary and does save lives”.
“Every cancer is different and they need to treat each patient as an individual,” she said. “If it wasn’t for my specialist and his knowledge, I don’t think I would have been so successful.”
