Tessa James: How a cancer diagnosis at 23 is still shaping Home And Away star’s life 10 years on

It’s been more than 10 years since Australian actress Tessa James was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and her cancer experience still shapes her life today.

Best known as Nicole Franklin on Home And Away, her diagnosis at just 23 years old rocked fans around Australia.

After all, young people at the height of their careers weren’t supposed to get cancer.

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James underwent treatment in Queensland and has been cancer-free for about a decade, but that chapter of her life left a lasting mark.

“Life doesn’t work out how you think it will and there is a really big blessing in that,” she tells 9honey.

“It’s not raw for me anymore and as much as it will always be a very dark and traumatic experience […] the gift that I’ve been given is that I’ve lived a lot of life in between.”

Now 33, James considers herself “lucky” for everything she’s had the privilege of experiencing since her cancer journey – especially becoming a mother.

While she’s not one to share the details of her family life with husband Nate Myles and their four children with the media, she’s surprisingly candid with other parents about everything from the newborn phase to reproductive health.

“When you’ve got kids there’s no filter,” she admits with a laugh.

“The biggest thing that I found being a mum, and it’s been one of the greatest gifts, is meeting all of these different people and having very open conversations.”

Most of her chats at school pick-up or around the local park are about terrible twos and sleep regression (her youngest is yet to turn one) but recently a new topic has been added into the mix: ovarian cancer.

As one of the ambassadors for the 2025 Witchery White Shirt campaign, which raises awareness and funds for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation (OCRF), James is painfully aware of just how deadly the disease can be.

Ovarian cancer affects about 1800 Australians born with ovaries every year and kills about 1000 people annually; that’s about one death every eight hours.

WATCH: Mother and daughter open up about their ovarian cancer experiences

There is still no early detection test and symptoms like irregular menstrual cycles and pelvic pain are vague and easy to miss, especially for busy mothers who so often put themselves and their health last on the ‘to do’ list.

”It’s quite scary how advanced it can be without even knowing,” James says.

“We really put ourselves last, even when we’re trying to put ourselves first, so I think that opening up that conversation is really important.”

It’s something James struggles with herself, stealing moment for her own health between raising four kids, being a wife and working as the director of award-winning Interior Design Studio AKI.

But with no early detection test, it’s vital that women learn to recognise the early warning signs of ovarian cancer; because those diagnosed in stage 1 have a 90 per cent chance of surviving five years but by stages 3 or 4, it’s slashed to just 29 per cent.

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Having survived a different cancer journey herself, James wants to help other women avoid such a fate.

“I felt- not a responsibility in a bad way, but actually in a in a good way, to start having these conversations with with women,” she says.

The White Shirt campaign was the perfect opportunity to take those conversations to the next level and really push for change by fundraising for the OCRF.

Now in its 17th year, the campaign has raised over $17 million already and funded vital research into early detection tests, better treatment options, and even a cure.

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Though James acknowledges her platform may not be as large as some of the other ambassadors, like actress Claudia Karvan, ovarian cancer can’t be tackled by one voice alone.

It will take so many women and men coming together to make the change necessary to change the statistics around this disease and with so many Aussies who still remember her fondly as a 2010s TV staple, James is excited to be a part of that change.

Witchery will donate 100 per cent of gross proceeds from every White Shirt and White Jean sold to the OCRF to support ovarian cancer research. Learn more and shop online or in-store.

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