It has been five months since Judy Emberson said farewell to her best friend and sister, Jill.
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But the pain has not diminished with the passing days.
Jill died of ovarian cancer in late December 2019, after a diagnosis found the disease in its late stages in 2016.
"The grief hits you every day. You just can't believe they're gone, this person you spoke to every week who you've got 61 years of history with and suddenly they're gone," Ms Emberson said.
While Ms Emberson resides in Wagga, her sister was from Newcastle, making them "one year apart but 700km away".
"It's so conflicting. You don't want them to suffer anymore so you're relieved when that's over. But you don't want them to be gone," she said.
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At the beginning of the year, Ms Emberson and her daughter travelled to Newcastle to accept the International Women's Day honour posthumously awarded to Jill.
"They said she was a hero of Newcastle, everything she did for the [cancer] cause, it was so deserved. They called her an Australian champion and she really was," Ms Emberson said.
To honour her memory on May 8, World Ovarian Cancer Day, Ms Emberson carried on her sister's legacy with the foundation she founded, Pink Meets Teal.
Earlier this year, she founded a support group for families touched by ovarian cancer. The inaugural meeting raised more than $1000 for the cause.
"55 people came and when I asked who had had someone close to them that had died, five people stood up, who had lost sisters and mothers," she said.
"One young man lost his mother [when he was] only 18. There's unity, we cried together, there's something there that binds us when you know someone who has gone through it."
Watching her sister's rapid decline became something of a wake-up call for Ms Emberson. Before she had not delved into her family's health history to find the genetic predisposition for cancer.
"You just have to know what's there, you have to get real about it and know your history," she said.
"Be proactive, especially with [ovarian cancer] because there's no way to screen it, and it's an ugly, vicious battle."