“Time is for living in the present.”
It is a simple message often taken for granted, but what if you could see the minutes of your life slipping away?
Melbourne resident Emily Lahey is among the tens of thousands of Australians who face this reality.
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The 31-year-old lives with NUT carcinoma — a rare, aggressive cancer with an average prognosis of just six to nine months.
Lahey is auctioning pieces of her precious remaining time to strangers in Sydney this weekend as part of a living artwork, Time to Live.
As visitors spend time with Lahey, an imposing projection of a timer counts down from three minutes, ticking away their moments together.
The “once-in-a-lifetime” experience aims to spotlight the emotional and psychological weight of living with, or being connected to someone with a terminal diagnosis, as well as emphasise the importance of cancer research.
‘A constant rollercoaster’
Before her diagnosis at 27, Lahey was fit and healthy, running 5km to 10km a day.
“I certainly didn’t think cancer was a possibility,” she told 7NEWS.com.au.
She struggled with prolonged sinusitis and headaches, but it was only when she started to rapidly lose vision in one of her eyes that doctors realised her common symptoms were something more sinister.
Scans discovered a mass “about the size of a cricket ball” across her sinuses and skull bone.
The rare cancer does not respond well to common cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, leaving her team “unsure where to start”.
Genetic testing helped narrow Lahey’s options down to an unapproved treatment called BET inhibitors.
But she had to wait for her condition to deteriorate to be deemed eligible for the government’s special access scheme to access it.
“It has allowed me extra time that I wouldn’t have thought I’d have, and that’s something both me and my family are very grateful for,” she said.
While doctors do not know how long Lahey has left, she makes the most of each precious day.
“Everything comes and goes in waves. It’s like being on a constant rollercoaster,” she said.
“There were times that I really struggled to even look to the following day, to the end of the week, to the next month.
“As time has gone on, it’s giving me a little bit of a little bit more confidence to be able to look out to towards the end of the year.”
Making the most of minutes
Cancer is the leading cause of death in Australia, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
Despite this, it is something people usually think will not happen to them or their loved ones, Lahey said.
“Time is a very valuable thing,” Lahey said.
“It’s a thing cancer can take away too much of.”
Lahey hopes the raw and intimate experience on Saturday will help people reassess what’s important in their lives and highlight the importance of cancer research.
In the early 1990s, Australia’s cancer survival rate was just over 50 per cent, according to the AIHW.
By the late 2010s, almost 70 per cent of Australians survived for at least five years after being diagnosed.
“Until survival rates are close to 100 per cent, I think as a community we need to continue to support progressive new ideas and cancer research,” she said.
The bold art experience is an initiative by the Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF), which funds innovative cancer research across all types of cancers, including rare cancers.
“There’s still a long way to go,” fundraising and marketing general manager Carly Du Toit said.
“We hope this idea helps highlight the continued need for backing brilliant research that could give those impacted by cancer, like Emily and her loved ones, the gift of the most precious thing we desire — more time.”
Time to Live: A terminal exhibition will run at Sydney’s Carriageworks on Saturday. Participants can register their interest here.