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Sarah Murdoch: ‘When Aerin turns 20, dying from breast cancer will be a thing of the past’

Sarah Murdoch: 'When Aerin turns 20, breast cancer will be a thing of the past'

Sarah Murdoch, her mum Carol and daughter Aerin. Photography by Peter Brew-Bevan. Styling by Mattie Cronan.

Providing a rare glimpse into the carefully-guarded private life of her family, Sarah Murdoch tells the May issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly why — after much deliberation — she agreed to be photographed with her daughter, Aerin.

Though Sarah has spent the better part of her childrens’ lives shielding them from the scrutiny that comes with their surname, she consented to include Aerin, three, in The Weekly’s special Mother’s Day shoot to highlight the work of a charity of which she’s been a patron for almost two decades — the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF).

“Our goal of zero deaths by 2030 means my daughter will be able to grow old without having to worry about dying from breast cancer,” Sarah says, citing NBCF figures that show a marked drop in the last 20 years of women dying from the disease.

“Think about that. It means when Aerin turns 20,women dying from breast cancer, a disease that was a scourge of my mother’s generation and one which continues to profoundly affect my generation, will be a thing of the past. It’s such a message of hope.”

With Sarah’s mother, Carol O’Hare also making her Australian Women’s Weekly cover debut, the photo of three generations of O’Hare/Murdoch women makes for a fitting Mother’s Day edition.

In the story, Sarah and her mother speak frankly of the close bond they share (a bond forged in no small part backstage at couture shows in Paris when Sarah was a young model) and the lessons Sarah has learned from her mother.

Sarah also tells news editor Bryce Corbett how she has been inspired by both her children and her late grandmother-in-law, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, to put her nascent television career to one side and concentrate on charity work.

“I am having this big period in my life where I am analysing my priorities,” she says. “And I suppose it comes from turning 40 and having my children on the cusp of growing up and me trying to hold on to them being babies. My priority will always be my children and then figuring out how to fit the rest of my life around them.”

Read more of this story in the May issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

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