Tributes pour in as Clare’s message rolls out

Source: The Age, September 2007

IN HER final weeks Clare Oliver achieved more than most people could hope to do in a lifetime.

Suffering from an aggressive form of skin cancer, she had two wishes before she died — to make it to her 26th birthday, and to warn the public about the dangers of suntanning.

Yesterday morning, less than three weeks after celebrating the first milestone at a party in Luna Park, she lost her fight for life. Tributes have poured in from around the nation, including from Prime Minister John Howard who described her death as “an appalling Australian tragedy".