Hi, I’m Jackie,

I’m 52 years old with 2 grown adult sons who I am very proud of, and for the longest time I’ve had an interest in photography, I just come to love capturing photos of my kids and family and that is how my love of photography started.

I was busy working full time mum, but in 2012 I actually became unwell and was diagnosed with Cancer which promptly changing my life forever!

That cancer journey lead me to pursue my love of photograph!

How Photography became my passion?

Sep 14 Written By Jackie Allender

For the longest time I’ve had an interest in photography, unlike some other photographers who have had family members who were or are still photographers and have brought up around it, I just come to love capturing photos of my kids and family, then everything around me, that is how my love of photography started.

 Every moment I had free, my camera would be out.

At that time, I was busy working full time mum, worked a lot of hours, spent a lot of time at work putting in my all, loving at the time what I was doing and as the years passed by my photography became less and less due to a busy work and home life, I am sure most can relate to the real struggle of achieving that work/life balance .

 In 2012 my life changed forever,  I actually became unwell with a sore throat and swollen gums, was tired, putting it down to working too hard and not taking care of myself, I took a couple of days off of work went to the Doctors and he put it down to a virus, he gave me some antibiotics for the gum swelling and sore throat, told me to go home and rest, which I did as I was so, so, tired, a tiredness that I had never experienced before!

Still wasn’t really feeling much better and a couple of days later I noticed some bruising on my legs, as we sometimes do, I continued to look for reasons and justifications for it, so I put it down to our dog jumping on my lap for some pats, she was a big heavy girl.  

The next day I was getting ready to go to work and after my shower I noticed some red blotches on my tummy which I thought oh that is strange but continued to get ready and left for work that day.

On my way into work, I consulted with Dr Google as you do and it came up with Leukaemia, thought to myself no can’t be, I would be a lot sicker than this wouldn’t I? So, when I got into work I made an appointment with the doctors for that day and as I walked out the door I said ‘I’ll be back after my appointment’.

Well, I didn’t go back, I received a phone call from my Doctor and was told to get myself into the Royal Adelaide Hospital immediately as my blood results showed I had  Leukaemia, I had a little melt down to myself and needed to get things organised, made some phone calls, needed to get someone to watch our son as he was only 9 at the time, our eldest son was away interstate and my mum had just left a few days earlier to go to Scotland to visit my sister, after I pulled myself together, and as I was driving into the hospital with my husband,  I thought oh, it will be fine, they will give me some chemo tablets or something, a couple of weeks off work and I’ll be good to go again…

How wrong was I……..?

Well, that was a start of several tough years fighting a very nasty aggressive blood cancer.

During treatments, and my long stays in hospital my doctors recommended that I try and find a hobby to occupy my time, so photography came back front and centre, so my journey back into photography started there right in the hospital!

On good days I read all the theory I could get my hands, desperate to get well enough and get my camera in my hand. On bad days I could only dream about it, once I did though, I realised that I didn’t know how to put it all into practice, so I was determined to get in right, I took online courses, joined clubs, Youtube was my friend,  and I photographed everything!

You might ask, ok but why do you photograph people?

Well, when I was looking for photographs of me that my children could remember me by as I was having to plan my funeral, I realised that there wasn’t too many…. And I promised myself that if I survived my Bone Marrow Transplant and was able to, I would make sure that would change for me and others…..

That is how after a long time Jackie Allender Photography came about….

I used to get stressed out

but my cancer has put

everything into perspective.

Delta Goodrem