Bunbury Roller Skating Club members Rosemary and Oliver Giles are getting ready to represent WA in the National Championships in Queensland.
At the recent State Championships Rosemary was selected for the State Team to compete in the Masters division alongside her son Oliver who was also selected as a state team member.
Ms Giles and Oliver also proudly represented their club for the first time in the Artistic Roller Skating Club Championships recently held in Perth.
Ms Giles said she was excited and grateful to be competing in the State Championships Masters Division for Freeskate and Figures being a relative newcomer to the sport and mastered in difficult circumstances.
The achievement is particularly special for Ms Giles who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2017, just weeks after winning the four kilometre Busselton City to Surf.
Prior to her diagnosis, Ms Giles had been a fit and competitive runner with the Bunbury Runners Club, competing in fun runs, marathons and high level ultra-marathons including the Australian 100km Championships.
Ready for a new challenge she decided to try rollerblading with her family, enjoying weekly learn to skate classes and private lessons with accredited fitness trainer Susan Brooks.
However it all had to stop with Ms Giles enduring 14 months of treatment including multiple surgeries, six months of intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
During that period due to debilitating side effects of her treatment she was unable to continue with her full-time work as a family lawyer or pursue her ambition to learn rollerblading.
With the support of her family and friends, whilst still undergoing treatment Ms Giles began to learn to rollerskate finding the skates more stable than the blades enabling her to continue to learn the new sport.
Ms Giles said her cancer treatment only fuelled her ambition to be the best skater that she could be and now seven months after the end of her treatment, she is grateful to be able to have gained the skills necessary to participate competitively.
Ms Giles has now returned to work and said she was proud of having fulfilled and achieved her goals despite her illness.
