Overcoming adversity: How Mary Tsouvalakis turned tragedy into triumph and with love of life at its core.
At 16, Mary Tsouvalakis was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and given 48 hours to live. Despite her young age and lack of experience, she chose to fight the life-threatening illness with the help of her faith and determined mother.
Almost four decades later, the girl with the terrifying diagnosis and desperate prognosis is still here and armed with a plethora of stories to tell from a life full of encounters with people, such as Mikis Theodorakis and former Labor minister Nick Bolkus.
Mary is a lawyer for the Victorian Department of Health and serves on the Board of Directors for the Experimental Therapeutics Organisation for Melanoma and Skin Cancer.
