Breast Cancer goes from 0-150mph in under 9 seconds
‘Don’t Wait for the Green Light’ is Andy’s sometimes humorous but highly emotional new book about her fight to get back on the race track.
Perth, Western Australia, July 2020: Andy Kahle turned her blog – written to keep her family up to date while she was undergoing cancer treatment – into her new book, “Don’t Wait for the Green Light”. Instead of being your standard Breast Cancer survival story, this book is a collection of emotional and often humorous situations that Andy found herself in while she put her motor racing on hold to fight a disease that affects 1 in 8 women.
“Everyone needs something to inspire them to keep fighting, and mine was the knowledge that I would get back in my race car. ”
While superstition says that back luck comes in 3’s, Andy didn’t allow this to sway her “need” to race down the quarter mile in Australia’s first compact car – the Holden Torana. First she blew up the transmission the day before she was supposed to get her racing license, then her husband – Mick – slipped in the shower and impaled himself on the tap, that very same evening. And if you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop … just as the racing season was coming to a close, and hubby was on the mend, Andy was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer, forcing her dream on hold.
There is a saying in drag racing, that if you wait until you see the green light before you leave the start line, you will miss out. So is the case in real life. Sometimes it’s better to put your foot flat to the floor and accelerate to where you want to be. While Andy’s book “Don’t Wait for the Green Light” starts with the uncertainty of a life changing diagnosis, Andy takes this as an opportunity to look at everything with her trademark wry humour. Situations such as the mood lighting and 70s style attire while getting a mammogram, or the nervous foot jiggling, plastic chair wobbling of her husband while she read outdated magazines in the doctors waiting room, Andy has managed to maintain the gravity of her journey while still demonstrating the importance of enjoying every moment and focussing on her ultimate goal of racing again.
Available in paperback or e-book, via Amazon, Andy has also provided the option to purchase a signed copy of “Don’t Wait for the Green Light” direct from her charity race car website – Therapy on Wheels. (www.TherapyonWheels.asn.au)
Despite being told she had a high risk of recurrence, at the age of 51 Andy Kahle has now been cancer free for over 10 years. Andy has also continued to race since the completion of her cancer treatment and now has a new race car on the way. This one has been custom built to allow Andy and her team to raise funds and awareness for the fight against breast cancer by offering passenger rides down the drag strip … but that’s a whole other story.
