Samuel Johnson has revealed he is still struggling with the aftermath of his sister’s death seven years later.
Connie Johnson lost her long battle with cancer in September 2017.
The 46-year-old tells the new SBS series The Hospital: In the Deep End that he cannot remember a time when his sister was not ill, after she was diagnosed with bone cancer at the age of 11, before uterine cancer at 22- years of age, before her death at the age of 22. 33 years old due to breast cancer.
“Dad and Connie came home in Dad’s blue Torana, and I knew something was wrong,” he said of the moment he learned Connie was sick.
“Dad said, ‘She has a tumor.’ And I didn’t know what a tumor was. Then I gradually found out it was cancer.’
Samuel Johnson (pictured) has revealed he is still struggling with the aftermath of his sister’s death seven years later
Connie Johnson lost her long battle with cancer in September 2017. Take a photo together
He continued: ‘She got cancer when she was 11 in her leg, when she was 22 in her womb and when she was 33 in her breast. And then it spread and she died, with two young children.
“So I don’t remember my sister not having cancer. She is my dear sister who took all the bullets and for some reason I am free until now.”
Sam previously opened up about the sadness he still felt at the loss of his beloved sibling.
“I can’t just back away from burying her and move on blindly,” an emotional Samuel said 9Honey.
‘I don’t remember a time when my sister didn’t have cancer. She is my dear sister who took all the bullets and for some reason I am free until now,” he said
In 2012, the siblings launched the charity Love Your Sister, which has since raised millions in the fight against cancer.
Sam is still hard at work raising money for Love Your Sister, but admits it hasn’t been easy without Connie by his side.
‘My mind just hasn’t been in the game. She left me a lot of things that I needed to understand,” he explained.
“Not having her to guide this, I had to do all my homework and make sure we did this right for her.”
Connie was married to husband Mike for 13 years, with whom she shared two sons, Willoughby, 18, and Hamilton, 17.
Sam told 9Honey that the boys have been remarkably resilient after their mother’s death.
He said: ‘The children finally have a childhood to enjoy. They never knew what it was like to be just a child because their mother had been sick ever since they could remember. The pain of her being gone is there, but the pain of seeing her so ill is also gone.”
Samuel also claimed that his brother-in-law Mike is “making the boys proud” with his strength.