OH! Magazine - Australian Version October 2016 | Page 9

LOVE YOUR SISTER
TO CURE CANCER

TONI
KRASICKI

Actor Samuel Johnson explains his ‘no b*llshit’ approach
to raising awareness and funds for breast cancer research.
You may have heard about a guy, who in
2013, unicycled across Australia, which
broke a Guinness Book of World Record
and raised $1.5 million dollars for
cancer research. That guy was former
actor Samuel Johnson. He’s the one who
brilliantly played Molly Meldrum in an
Aussie mini series earlier this year, and
has been seen as well as heard
(voiceovers) by audiences for over the
past two and a half decades. We say
'former' because in February 2016,
Samuel announced his retirement from
acting to dive hook, line and sinker into
his charity Love Your Sister.
To make a stand against breast cancer
and to support his sister Connie, Samuel
has been an advocate for breast cancer
and a shining light for not only Connie
but for all who are touched by the
disease. Samuel has vowed to stick by
Connie and show as much grit and
determination as his sister has shown
throughout her ordeal.
His commitment to the ‘village’ (the
term used for anyone dealing with or who
has been affected by cancer) is
impressive, and he has vowed not to
return to acting or his ‘real life’ until the
charity has raised $10 million. This year
the charity launched the Swear Jar
campaign and Samuel’s personal project
The Stick, an online paper featuring a
star-studded cast of comedians, actors,
writers and illustrators that have
something to say about issues beyond
regular news.

Currently having raised $2.5 million,
Samuel estimates it will take another
seven years for Love Your Sister to reach
its goal. He says that he’s just trying to
invent ways to hit that 10 million as
quickly as possible so he can get back to
his life, and perhaps, back in front of the
camera again.
Here’s what Samuel had to say when we
caught up with him recently.
What’s the motivation to make Love Your
Sister reach its target?
Initially I was beholden to my sister’s
dying wish, which was that I try and
remind every young mother to be breast
aware. It was a commitment I couldn’t
escape from as my sister is very bossy,
and, who says 'no' to dying wishes, right?
It very quickly became very important to
me even though initially I didn’t
understand my sister’s willingness to air
out dirty laundry to the whole country. So
it took me a while to see the bigger
picture, and now I’m motivated in quite
an extreme kind of way, by the many
hundreds if not feasibly thousands of
families that I have direct contact with
now. What started off as a promise to my
dying sister, quickly turned into a
commitment to our 350,000-strong
village, to do my part to bash cancer in
the face-hole.

What differentiates the Love Your Sister
charity from others?
We’re no b*llshit and we don’t f*&k
around. We pass 100 per cent of every
dollar raised to our cause, which is
research and science; there’s just no
fairy floss with us. We aren’t peacefully
trying to edge our way to a cure, we’re
really f%&king offended by what cancer
does to our families, and we’re quite
militant about it. I would say what
separates us is our determination to
show this through the root cause as
opposed to practical support like a lot of
the other breast cancer organisations do.
I mean I don’t want to take away from
any of the support groups but I’d like to
see a larger piece of that pink pie going
towards research to solve the problem,
rather than deal with it after it's
occurred.
What went through your mind when you set
off to unicycle across Australia?
It was the best kind of nightmare!
Ultimately any kind of pain I was feeling
out there on the unicycle was short term,
and I kept reminding myself that ‘It ain’t
breast cancer’. The unicycling, in a way,
was just a means of securing attention.
Admittedly it was challenging, but it was
also the most rewarding experience of
my life. I’ve struggled to look back on it
negatively at all – I do tend to remember
the good bits rather than the pain or
what not. All the way through I knew it
was a bit insane.

OH! MAGAZINE (OCTOBER 2016)

9