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I was born in Fiji and was adopted to an Australian family at 10. My parents are John and Sue Cornford. My father was the Albion Park Anglican Church minister and has now retired. I grew up in Albion Park. In Fiji, I loved being outside. We would just run around outside with no shoes. That was a big difference when I came here, I couldn't just run around on the street. I was excited about the life I was going to have in Australia. When you're a little Fijian girl, Australia was this amazing place - a land of opportunity. We all looked up to white people. I didn't understand what adopted was - I thought I was going for a little holiday, to stay at a big mansion, with a big swimming pool and my own bedroom. We lived at the rectory. I went to Illawarra Christian School and met all these little white kids. They were very welcoming. I am the youngest of six children. I have two sisters from Korea who are also adopted.
At 13, I was diagnosed with lupus. It's an autoimmune disease which attacks people in different ways, but for me it attacked my organs. I played rep netball for Illawarra and being out in the sun, I just became ill all the time and I was always tired and lethargic afterwards. I was put on steroids and that kept me stable for a while. I can't be in the sun a lot, I'm prone to skin cancers. It changed my life a lot because I wasn't able to go to the beach with my friends or play much sport outside. I had to give up netball. I was always in and out of hospital. I've always been close to the church. I loved music, so I concentrated on my singing instead. At around 19 or 20 I had to go on chemotherapy because the medication that I was on, the lupus still flared. So to protect my kidney, I went on to cyclophosphamide, a type of chemo drug. That was also hard - it was very lonely. I couldn't really go to church because if people were sick, I'd catch it straight away. I lost my hair, lost a tremendous amount of weight. I did lots of singing and listening to music at home. I was very passionate about this not conquering me. I didn't go into depression, because I always kept positive, choosing good things and people around me.
After the chemo I got ill again and at 21 the doctors told me they didn't have any more medication or a cure, so they basically sent me home to say goodbye to my family and friends. I went home that night. But I still had my strong faith and the passage from the Bible that was important to me was Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future". I clung onto that with my dear life. I kept going. I spent four years on dialysis at Shellharbour Renal Centre and two years on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. Dialysis was every second day for five hours. I don't know how I did it. I'm involved with Transplant Australia, Donate Life, Kidney Health getting awareness out on kidney health and people donating their organs after death. Waiting was very hard but in August 2013 I had my transplant. I've had a bit of rejection in the last two years, but right now I'm in the best of health.
In 2012, when I was still on dialysis I went on to The X-Factor to raise awareness of organ donation and I got through to the boot camp stage. The fact I was going for a bigger purpose didn't make it so daunting. I love blues and jazz, anything soulful. It definitely helped - that year a lot of people got kidney transplants. Being sick, it's really hard to go into the workforce, because you don't have qualifications or much experience. When I saw Evocca College and the courses they had, it was very flexible. It really suited me and I've really, really enjoyed it. We had a fundraiser for Kidney Health which raised $730. People need to have a chat with their families about organ donation and let them know what they want to do. You either save someone's life or chuck your organ in the bin. I know the effect it has on me having a second chance on life. I do a show on Pulse 94.1 FM called Chillin' from 7pm-9pm, Monday to Friday. I got married two years ago and we are hoping to have a family.