The moment that brought Karl Stefanovic to tears
When Lara Thomas stepped out onto the This Time Next Year stage and pledged that by this time next year, she’d have “amazing boobs”, she had the audience in fits of laughter and left host Karl Stefanovic blushing up a storm. However, when she revealed the heartbreaking reason behind her pledge, Karl was close to tears.
Just two weeks before appearing on the show, Lara was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. “I was just in the shower after I’d been in the pool with the kids and some friends, and I just found it,” she told 9Honey.
She wasted no time at all, visiting her doctor the next day and then heading to Sydney Breast Clinic the day after. When the bad news came, Lara’s first thought was, “Oh my God, I’m going to die”.
“You think about your kids,” she told Karl. “That’s the hardest part. They know now – well my two-year-old is too young, but my seven-year-old, we haven’t used the ‘c’ word, but that is the hardest part.”
One year later, Lara stepped through the second door with a new short crop, a tattoo with the word “stronger”, and the most exciting thing of all. After going through two surgeries and 14 rounds of chemo, Lara finally got what she wanted – new boobs, going from a small B cup to a D.
“I didn’t get a tummy tuck, but to make my boobs look more natural, they take the fat from the top of your stomach and from the bottom of mine. It wasn’t a tummy tuck but it was a bit of lipo.”
Lara hasn’t quite gotten the all-clear just yet, but the tumour has been cut out and she is still receiving treatment. “You live in fear of it coming back,” she said.
Now, all Lara wants is for women in a similar situation to know they’re not alone. “If someone’s watching it and they’re at that same point, I hope that they can look at me and go, ‘Oh my God, I really hope that's me next year.’”
“You do come out the other side. So hopefully someone can look at it and get some hope.”