The Diva & The Showgirl

Today, my friend Mikael who's just come home for the holidays, gave me a precious gift: the Kylie Showgirl DVD. It was released last week and recorded from Kylie Minogue's Showgirl tour which was abruptly cut short when she discovered she had breast cancer. She began the tour early this year and was scheduled to close the tour in her home country, Australia, in late May. I am one of millions of her devoted fans.

I remember I first saw her in Neighbours. I must've been about 12 or 13. Like two of her songs, it was love at first sight. Then she released her first single, Loco-motion, which became the biggest selling single of the 80s in Australia. I didn't even know that it was released until one day, my synchronized swimming trainer said we were doing a new routine to this song. I asked who it was and the rest, you know, is history.

Many years on, and I collected every available piece of recorded material she had, but I never had the opportunity of watching her perform live. (I've been on stage with her sister Dannii but I'll leave that for another day.) Till one day, another great friend, Cheng Han, calls from Sydney and teases me about buying tickets to watch Showgirl. She called the ticketing agent but the tickets were sold out. She called the day they released them. She then tried another agent and could only wing us seats somewhere in Siberia. Well, I didn't expect to go anyway. When Kylie tours, her tickets sell out fast. BUT, at the end of the week, Cheng Han calls and says "Guess What?!?" Not only did she get them but she scored seats 2 rows off the stage front! And as luck would have it, the MAS Travel fair came a week later.

Come May 19th, I was ready. I arrived in Sydney 2 days before the show and on that very day, Kylie was admitted to hospital.

My lifetime dream. It will come true. All my dreams do.

Because of Kylie, the statistics of women in Australia having mammogram tests rose by over 200%. The same effect was seen the world over.

Kylie completes her chemotherapy this week. Not everyone is that lucky. For those of us in cities, medical expertise is close at hand. Early detection is better than no detection. Or ignoring pain.

My mother is a cancer survivor but my father, unfortunately, detected it too late. He was gone in 10 days. May he rest with the angels.

You know the moral of the story. Feel yourself up sometimes.