Young woman with terminal ovarian cancer shared her bucket list

Riding bareback on a horse, skydiving, and flying in a fighter jet are some of the activities Alisi Jack-Kaufusi never thought she’d be able to do. 

Six years ago the HR administrator was given the ‘soul crushing news’ she had stage three ovarian cancer after scans found two tumours the size of grapefruits on each ovary.  

Despite the best efforts of doctors, the diagnosis is terminal and physicians can’t confirm exactly how much time she has left. 

Now Alisi, originally from New Zealand but who lives in Brisbane, has devised a ‘timeless list’ consisting of everything she wants to do while she can.

Before her diagnosis, Alisi, now 30, experienced bloating in her lower abdomen area, she was tired ‘all the time’ and her menstrual cycle was ‘irregular’. 

But she dismissed the symptoms because she assumed she was ‘too young for any serious health concerns’.

Now Alisi, originally from New Zealand but who lives in Brisbane, has devised a ‘timeless list’ consisting of everything she wants to do while she can

During a visit to see a GP in October 2017, she mentioned she had been experiencing bleeding for about a month and the blood was clotted and dark.

After getting multiple blood tests, MRI and a CT scan, she was booked in for a biopsy after the doctor noticed ‘something blocking’ her ovaries. 

Alisi’s world came crashing down in December 2017 after being told she had ovarian cancer at 24, given the average age of women diagnosed with the disease is 64.

‘Once I heard ovarian cancer, I looked at mum and froze. It felt like the room went silent and all I could see was the doctor’s mouth moving. It was all just a blur. I just remember saying to the doctor: “No, this can’t be because I am only 24, you have the wrong person”,’ Alisi recalled.

‘Being told by the medical team that I got this disease 30 years early was hard to process and still is. When you think cancer, you think old.’

By the time she was diagnosed, the cancer had spread outside her ovaries.

‘I had to have a full hysterectomy and unfortunately, they were unable to save any eggs. In your 20s, the last thing you think of is having to come terms with not being able to have your own biological children. I felt robbed,’ she said. 

‘It feels like all my wishes and goals squeezed into a smaller time frame. I might not die tomorrow, but I may not live long enough to have long-term plans.’

Alisi has devised a ‘timeless list'(pictured)  consisting of 72 activities and travel plans – from seeing the Northern Lights to getting her teeth whitened and going on a safari tour in South Africa

So far she’s gone skydiving, flown in a fighter jet (pictured) and ridden a horse bareback on the beach

‘Riding down the beach on a horse was so therapeutic, and flying in the fighter jet was so thrilling – I felt so free and could forget about everything for half an hour,’ she said

Alisi has devised a ‘timeless list’ of 72 activities and travel plans – from seeing the Northern Lights to getting her teeth whitened and going on a safari tour in South Africa. 

‘Riding down the beach on a horse was so therapeutic, and flying in the fighter jet was so thrilling – I felt so free and could forget about everything for half an hour,’ she said.

Alisi also wants to travel to Tonga to swim with whales, as this is where her family is from, and go bungee jumping in New Zealand.

While she’s made a start on the list, she’s unsure if she’ll have enough time to complete it.

‘The one regret I have is not going to the doctor sooner to get my symptoms checked – I put it off for about three months,’ she said.

‘The doctors were great but I really put off making an appointment. And I had never heard of ovarian cancer before my diagnosis.

‘I was so shocked, upset and scared of what the future looked like for me.’   

Thankfully she’d had the support of her family throughout the entire ordeal.  

‘The one regret I have is not going to the doctor sooner to get my symptoms checked – I put it off for about three months,’ she said 

By sharing her story, Alisa wanted to remind other women suffering from cancer to just ‘take each day as it comes’ (left at age 20 before diagnosis and right after)