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Liv Cripps on her cancer scare at just 26: ‘It was the last thing I expected’

At her picturesque Wilyabrup wedding in October, Liv Cripps was the epitome of the glowing bride — joyous, vibrant, radiant with love and happiness. But what the photographs don’t show, and what only a handful of her closest confidantes knew, is that she was also keeping a secret. Under her blonde waves was a small lump on her neck that she had discovered just two weeks earlier was cancer. Less than a week after the wedding, she would be in surgery. The diagnosis hit the young Cripps family like a bolt from the clear blue sky. Liv was just 26, a mother to one-year-old Reif, about to get married to the love of her life, West Coast Eagles star Jamie, and looking forward to a honeymoon and then getting back to work after 18 months maternity leave. She’d thought the lump was her immune system responding to her COVID vaccination, or perhaps just a passing virus, and her exhaustion a byproduct of caring for a rambunctious little boy. It turned out to be more sinister: thyroid cancer. Even so, Liv knows she is one of the lucky ones. When she spoke to STM recently, she was about to go in for a round of radioactive iodine treatment to kill off any cancer cells that might remain, meaning she had to isolate for days to avoid exposing anyone else. But because she acted relatively quickly, with any luck, that will be the end of it. She has been otherwise well, the only visible sign of her ordeal a thin scar running just above her collarbone, where a surgeon removed her thyroid and some lymph nodes. Liv says she is sharing her very personal story for one reason: to encourage others, particularly young people who might not consider themselves candidates for a serious illness, to get any lumps - or any abnormalities at all - checked by a doctor. “At the age of 26, (cancer) is just the furthest thing from your mind,” Liv says. “It was the last thing I was expecting - Jamie went grey, I was in shock. It was such an emotional time.” For Liv, the first sign anything was amiss was when her fingers passed over that small lump while taking a shower. She mentioned it in passing to Jamie, who suggested she get it checked out. But she brushed it off, saying she was sure it was fine, especially after talking to her parents who also felt it was most likely a passing response to her recent vaccination (her father is a urologist, her mother a nurse). But a couple of weeks later, when it had grown slightly rather than receded, Liv decided to see her doctor, if only for peace of mind. She was taking Reif to the GP for his immunisations anyway, so it was easy enough to ask the question. The doctor was also of the view that it was more than likely innocuous but sent her for a scan, just to be sure. At that appointment, Liv says she sensed something was off. “The lady (doing the scan) went a bit weird and it was taking forever, so I just felt like, something doesn’t feel right here,” she remembers. Jamie, who Liv met on Instagram in 2016 and who proposed during a holiday in New Zealand two years ago, was away on a football trip, so she went home and distracted herself with caring for Reif. A few days later, on a Monday, her mum came to the door. She doesn’t usually cry, Liv says, but she broke down. She said that Liv’s father had read the medical report that had come back: it indicated papillary thyroid cancer. The next few days, before she was able to see a specialist, were gruelling for the family. Liv’s father worked on getting her the first available appointment with a specialist, and Liv and Jamie grappled with their emotions — shock, sorrow, fear — as they confided in their inner circle. “You hear the word, ‘cancer’ and you immediately think of the worst-case scenario,” Liv remembers. “It was just a very sad time. Even telling close friends and family, that was the worst thing. I don’t think either of us could get the words out without crying.” She looks down at Reif, chatting away happily on the floor: “At least he is at an age where he doesn’t know what’s happening.” Luckily, that period of contemplating the most dire outcomes was brief. By Thursday that week, Liv was meeting with a surgeon to make a plan for her treatment. “It all happened so fast but he really reassured me that everything was going to be OK,” she says. “He told me it was one of the most common cancers in the world and I was also lucky because it is one of the most treatable.” But it was also lucky Liv had sought help when she did; the doctor told her it is likely the cancer had been there for a couple of years, before it spread to her lymph nodes and caused the swelling that ultimately raised the alarm. According to the Cancer Council, Liv was one of 3230 new cases of thyroid cancer projected to be diagnosed in 2021, between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of which would be papillary thyroid cancer. It is more common in women and the five year survival rate is 97 per cent. Once Liv knew her prognosis was good and that surgery could wait until after the wedding, she felt hugely relieved. She and Jamie had already delayed once, when she fell pregnant with Reif, so they were ecstatic to be able to go ahead and tie the knot. But the couple decided against sharing Liv’s diagnosis widely, instead doing their best to allow the joy of the occasion to put it out of their minds. “I didn’t want everyone at the wedding to be all, ‘Oh, poor Liv, I’m so sorry’ so we only told a couple of people. Then after the wedding, I was like, ‘surprise’,” she says, with a wry laugh. “A lot of friends have said that at the wedding, you would not have known there was anything wrong with me. I was so happy that I honestly just forgot about it for the day. I banned the word ‘cancer’, I said to my bridesmaids that we are not even going to mention it.” Liv says after the wedding, because she knew she was going to be OK, she “casually dropped it into a couple of conversations”. “People were like, ‘are you serious?’ There is such stigma around the word ‘cancer’ and I would love to get rid of that,” she says. “It’s not always going to be the worst-case scenario.” Liv and Jamie had to cancel their planned honeymoon to Adelaide so she could have surgery; but in a way, having it take place in the AFL off season was also fortuitous, because Jamie was able to be home with Reif — who Liv says is a “real Daddy’s boy” — while she recovered. They both visited twice a day, during the four days she was in hospital. Liv, who is also a model and Miss Universe Australia finalist, later posted a photograph from her hospital bed to Instagram, to share her story with her followers. The caption expressed her gratitude “to be surrounded by so many amazing friends and family who have shown so much love and support” and prompted an outpouring of best wishes, including from Emmi Masten and Brittany Bown, Jamie’s teammates Brad Sheppard and Mark LeCras, singer Amy Manford, Love Island alumni Tayla Damir and former Miss Universe Australia winners Caris Tiivel and Olivia Molly Rogers. But Liv was also taken aback by the number of responses from people with a connection to thyroid cancer. Several posted comments about their own experiences, reassuring Liv they had fully recovered and gone on to normal, happy lives. “I have had so many people reach out to me. I really had no idea how common it was, especially in young women. Even friends and family will say things like, ‘I was talking about you to a friend and their Mum had it’, those types of things,” she says. But knowing how many have been affected — and how many people are letting anomalies with their bodies go unchecked — has only strengthened Liv’s resolve to encourage others to be vigilant. “I’ve had people message me on Instagram saying, ‘I’ve got this on my skin’ or ‘I’ve got this’ and I’m just like, ‘go and get that checked right now’,” she says. “Obviously there are worst-case scenarios but you can also rule things out and even if it is, you can get on to it early — that is the key thing.” As a busy young mother, planning a wedding and looking after a child, it would have been easy for Liv to ignore that lump. She remembers feeling “drained and exhausted” before it appeared, even going to her GP to have her iron levels checked a couple of months before her diagnosis. But when those test results came back normal, she assumed her low energy was just the result of getting up to Reif at night. She had no other symptoms, which is not uncommon for thyroid cancer. After her surgery went well, the family got the chance to escape up north afterwards for a well-earned break, heading to Northampton to celebrate the unveiling of a statue of Jamie and other footballing stars from the small town, then on to Exmouth for some perfect days at the beach. And although she expected the iodine therapy to be tough — mainly because the use of radioactive material means she can’t see Reif for five days — Liv is hopeful that afterwards, life will get back to normal. She is excited about returning to work in human resources at engineering giant Monadelphous in January and she and Jamie are planning a festive dinner for the Eagles players from the Eastern States who have been unable to travel home. She’s also looking forward to ditching her current low iodine diet (no seafood, dairy, or bread) in style — Christmas will be at her uncle’s beachside house in Rockingham, where her cousin harvests fresh oysters. (They alternate each year and spent last year with the Cripps family in the Mid West). And given the past two years have contained an engagement, a pregnancy and baby, the disruption of COVID to Jamie’s season that meant he was often away for long stretches, moving to their new house, a wedding and a cancer diagnosis, Liv is ready for some time without any major life-altering events. “I did joke to Mum the other day that I am definitely ticking everything off the list by the time I’m 30,” she laughs. “I’m hoping for a chilled rest of my life.” For more information about thyroid cancer, visit the Cancer Council website.

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Liv Cripps on her cancer scare at just 26: ‘It was the last thing I expected’

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The West Australian exclusiveLiv Cripps on her cancer scare at just 26: ‘It was the last thing I expected’

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Liv Cripps on her cancer scare at just 26: ‘It was the last thing I expected’