‘I lived in a champagne world and had everything we wanted. It took me a long time to leave because I believed you were supposed to stay married. But for years, towards the end, our family was just broken.’<\/p>\n
Most of the marital problems stemmed from Briar’s husband’s expectations of her.<\/p>\n
‘Nothing was ever good enough for him, including me. Nothing I ever did, wore, said, cooked, how my hair looked,’ she claimed.<\/p>\n
At the time, Briar was juggling working up to 80 hours a week running her business as a conveyancer, raising four boys, cooking for the family and doing household chores.<\/p>\n
She had to hire a nanny to help her keep up with daily tasks.<\/p>\n
For a long time, the couple buried their heads in the sand. Briar’s husband’s solution was to build them a second home, which took two and a half years to complete.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Briar](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/105327205-15397697-_I_was_sick_stressed_constantly_tired_and_I_gained_weight_even_i-a-39_17678475227.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Briar Kirkby’s life was in turmoil for years while separating from her husband<\/p>\n
But in 2015, their relationship finally reached breaking point.<\/p>\n
‘One day he yelled, “I want a divorce!” and I was like, “Okay, finally.” And that was it.’\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Briar\u00a0sat her sons down to tell them about the separation, her eldest was just starting Year 12.<\/p>\n
‘I packed a car full of personal belongings, went out the front door and knew there was nothing left in that house for me. I reassured my boys we’d figure this out and they came with me,’ she said.<\/p>\n
Briar would later sell many of her personal belongings for extra cash because of the financial strain of the separation.<\/p>\n
‘I had a wardrobe sale, went to Cash Converters, sold my two favourite handbags. Even my third oldest son said to me, “Mum, you can sell my PlayStation,”‘ she said.<\/p>\n
‘We moved into a small rental,\u00a0bought cheap Kmart dinner sets, and I learned how to keep a roof over our heads and cook $10 dinners.’<\/p>\n
‘Friends helped us out – one turned up with a small washing machine which got us by. We went through hell and back.’<\/p>\n
![\"'I](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/105327209-15397697-image-a-37_1767847522224.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
‘I was sick, stressed, constantly tired, and I gained weight even if I didn’t eat,’ Briar said\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the divorce went through the courts, Briar and the boys managed the best they could.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eventually, she received enough money from the estate to buy a property in Bali, which she renovated to lease out – but she insists times were still tough.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As time went on, she saw a counsellor, saying the legal process had turned her into an ‘angry person’ and was, in turn, negatively impacting her health.<\/p>\n
‘I was emotional, stressed, vomiting, not eating but getting fatter, and just angry all the time,’ she said.<\/p>\n
By late November 2023, she was so run-down, but kept going. Perhaps most distressing of all was her weight gain, which was doubly confusing because she wasn’t over-eating – she simply couldn’t afford to.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘I thought it was just me and my body type. I was so embarrassed by how fat I was and hated myself,’ she said.<\/p>\n
![\"One](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/104932011-15397697-One_day_in_2023_Briars_started_coughing_up_blood_Doctors_found_a-a-38_17678475222.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
One day in 2023, Briar started coughing up blood. Doctors found a lump at the back of her throat which was cancerous\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Briar](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/104935163-15397697-Briar_was_diagnosed_at_58-a-30_1767839131825.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Briar was diagnosed at 58\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, one morning at the end of that year, Briar was renovating the Bali villa when she started coughing up blood.<\/p>\n
She was also running a fever, had a headache and felt dizzy.<\/p>\n
‘I pushed on. Working for myself, I didn’t have the luxury of sick leave,’ she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘But later that same day, I collapsed.’<\/p>\n
Briar was taken to hospital where she was put on an IV drip and told she was too unwell to fly home to Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All she could think about was the fact that two guests were due to check into the villa in a couple of days’ time. She couldn’t afford to lose the money, she thought.<\/p>\n
Despite the doctor’s warning, she caught a flight anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘A week later, I went out to dinner with friends and thought I had a piece of lettuce stuck in my throat. But\u00a0when I looked, I couldn’t see anything. The next morning I got out a torch and saw a nasty red lump at the back of my throat,’ she said.<\/p>\n
After returning to the doctor, she found the lump became more inflamed when touched. It soon doubled in size.<\/p>\n
‘Over the next few weeks, I couldn’t swallow, breathing was an issue and I was snoring like a chainsaw. I went to my regular doctor and had a round of tests – MRI, CT scan and a PET scan.’<\/p>\n
A week later, Briar received a shocking diagnosis: throat cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The symptoms of throat cancer<\/p>\n
Throat cancer generally refers to cancers that start in the pharynx or larynx (voice box), but can also refer to cancers that start in the oesophagus (food pipe) or thyroid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some cancers that begin in the throat area, as well as the tongue, salivary glands, sinuses, nose or ear, are classified as head and neck cancers.<\/p>\n
Symptoms for throat cancers can include:\u00a0<\/p>\n
- \n
- throat pain\u00a0<\/li>\n
- shortness of breath\u00a0<\/li>\n
- persistent sore throat or cough\u00a0<\/li>\n
- coughing up blood\u00a0<\/li>\n
- changes to the voice such as hoarseness\u00a0<\/li>\n
- difficulties swallowing\u00a0<\/li>\n
- feeling there is something stuck in the throat\u00a0<\/li>\n
- lumps in the neck or throat<\/li>\n
- sudden unexplained weight loss\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Source: Cancer Council\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Advertisement<\/p>\n
‘Doctors thought it was 5-6cm when it was in fact 16cm and at the back of my throat,’ she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘I’ll never forget hearing the words, “You have cancer.” I just thought, “Why me? Haven’t I been through enough?” I thought divorce was hard – this was something else.’<\/p>\n
Soon after the diagnosis, there was another setback: the surgeons couldn’t operate to remove the lump because it was too close to her vocal cords.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Briar was offered chemotherapy but, concerned about the side effects, refused. Instead, she opted for six months of radiotherapy, which is generally easier to tolerate day\u2011to\u2011day than chemo.<\/p>\n
She supplemented this with natural treatments like soundwave healing and Reiki.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
After concluding the treatment, she received welcome news from her doctor: ‘Your results are perfect. I don’t want to see you for 12 months.’<\/p>\n
‘It was a huge weight off my shoulders. I have no idea what worked – but something did,’ she said.<\/p>\n
While no one can say for sure what caused Briar’s cancer, she believes that stress from her separation was an aggravating factor.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘My stress levels were through the roof, I stopped exercising, made poor food choices, worked long hours and my job pressure didn’t help the situation,’ she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘I was pushing a lot, I worked 14 hours some days, little sleep and then rinse and repeat.<\/p>\n
‘I neglected all the signs to look after myself. I even flew to Bali sick to renovate my second villa. I ignored the signs.’<\/p>\n