NOTHING CAN HOLD ME BACK

EMILY RIGGS WAS HIT WITH LOSS AND ADVERSITY, BUT SHE FOUND THE STRENGTH TO FOLLOW HER DREAMS

- Ruth McCarthy

When Emily Riggs launched her fashion brand, Iris & Wool, she was worried she’d taken on too much. As well as juggling life as a mum to her son Sam, now 5, and daughter Lucy, 2, Emily also helps husband Tom, a 35-year-old fifth-generation sheep farmer, manage 15,000 merino sheep across their four properties in Burra, South Australia.

But Emily understands more than most why it’s so important to chase your dreams. At 10, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. She then lost her mother to breast cancer shortly afterwards. But it’s her personal story, underscored by tragedy, that has given the 34-year-old creative director a fierce determination to fulfil her goals, no matter how busy she is.

“I remember Mum and Dad were by my bedside in hospital when the specialist came in with an ashen look on his face and said I had cancer,” Emily recounts to WHO. “It defied belief. Just a few years before Mum had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was undergoing treatment. Then suddenly, we were both battling cancer.”

As Emily underwent gruelling bouts of chemo, one year into Emily’s treatment her beloved mum, Jane, succumbed to breast cancer after a heroic five-year battle. She was just 43.

“Mum was always so brave and upbeat – she stayed strong for me, my dad and older brother right until the end,” Emily explains. “She was the most courageous and wonderful role model.”