Jasmin is 32, lives in rural South Australia, a step mum to “three awesome kids”. She was diagnosed with a very rare form of Ovarian cancer at the age of 30, just a year and a half after she had met her partner Nick and his children.

She told us “Our world changed so fast, and I was put on a roller coaster of surgeries and treatments so fast I can hardly remember. Nick, he never left my side, my true knight in shining armour. A love story, I fell so in love with him and his little family, and it kept me so strong.”

Ticking items off the bucket list

“We kickstarted everything and started ticking off my bucket list. The future was unknown we had to fast track everything. Throughout my treatment I built an indoor aviary for my birds and become a local bird foster carer which kept my spirits high throughout treatment.

I am a massive animal lover, with qualifications and lots of volunteering behind me. The animals are my passion, I dreamt of becoming a zookeeper one day, but that was slowly slipping away. So, I kept volunteering and kept my head high enjoying every minute of what I could achieve.

Months went past recovering, thinking that would be the last of my cancer battle. But we got the news that my cancer came back, and it was even more aggressive than before. It was a shock!

Jasmin's dream to see the animals

Jasmin dreamt of seeing the animals at Monarto Zoo resort saying “Animals are very healing. Oh, would it bring me so much joy and excitement to our family. I have always wished to feed the giraffes and spend time with other animals. To see my three step kids’ happy faces at the zoo would make me whole.”

Didn’t she look the part! Embracing her ‘mini-Africa’ dream.