Corinne ‘Cozzy’ Truslove never liked the rat race, with stressed-out office workers bustling to and from their 9-5s and the crawling peak-hour traffic.
So with her partner Mitch, the 53-year-old decided to quit the corporate life and sail the open seas — for good.
But just shy of a year into their ocean adventure, Cozzy had a health scare that threatened to derail her charmed new lifestyle.
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After having a medical checkup while on land, she learnt that an 8cm cancerous mass was growing from her liver into her diaphragm.
And she now credits sailing for having saved her.
“Without the boat, I might not have had that checkup,” Cozzy tells 7Life of the sea change which alerted her to the potentially deadly health scare.
Mitch had dreamt of living on the water for as long as he can remember.
When Cozzy came into the picture seven years ago, she was quick to jump onboard with his plans.
“I was sick of hearing about this dream,” she affectionately jokes.
“So I just told him when we see a catamaran we will buy it.”
One night, the couple were out for drinks at a bar in their home city Mandurah, south of Perth, when they noticed a boat salesman closing his shop for the day.
After sparking up a conversation, it became evident the salesman had exactly the boat the pair was after.
A month later, they were onboard their very own catamaran, Ocean Lady, and had begun documenting their journey on their Youtube channel, Sailing Ocean Life.
Mitch and Cozzy spent four weeks aboard the boat, perfecting their sea legs while enjoying some of the vast West Australian coastline.
Once back home, the couple couldn’t get the joyous memories of their newfound salty lifestyle out of their minds — and decided that taking the plunge was now or never.
“Some people wait until they are 70 to do this sort of thing,” Cozzy says.
“But wouldn’t you rather do it now when you are healthy and can do so much more.”
They began to prepare in earnest for their new life on the seas.
The couple owned an online event business, and realised there was no reason they couldn’t still operate the company while on deck.
Their first trip would be up to the Pilbara coast of WA, with the only plan to dock in Perth at Christmas to spend the holiday period with Cozzy’s elderly father.
Just before they left, Cozzy had a free bowel screening test from the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, which is sent every two years to Australians aged over 50.
The test returned an irregularity, so she had a colonoscopy, but that procedure resulted in no alarm bells.
So her doctor recommended she go back for a checkup in six to eight months time.
In the meantime, in May 2022, Mitch and Cozzy set sail.
They floated around the Montebello Islands, 120km off the Pilbara coast.
They snorkelled with sea life and soaked up the sun.
Bobbing around in the middle of nowhere, the couple lived off canned food, home made gin and bread that Cozzy baked fresh on board.
They slowly made the journey south to Perth and landed in December.
Once on terra firma, they decided to run through chores and errands they couldn’t do while sailing.
From haircuts to stocking up on much-needed fresh fruit and veg — as well as GP checkups and the colonoscopy followup — they ticked as much off as they could.
“When you are sailing and you don’t have access to these things, you take advantage of it when you do, because you don’t know when you will be able to again,” Cozzy says.
While at her GP, she mentioned she was bloated but laughed off the symptom because she had been surviving off tinned food for a few months.
Her doctor wasn’t convinced and sent Cozzy for a full-body ultrasound.
“She (ultrasound technician) was going down the left side of my body and we were chatting away,” she says.
“But then she moved to my right side and just stopped.”
The technician told Cozzy to sit tight while she went to get a doctor.
As Cozzy waited, she overheard the technician and the doctor talking in the hallway — and her heart sank.
Picking up her phone, she googled “Lesion 8 right lobe”.
“It was telling me ‘lung cancer’,” she says.
The doctor walked in and explained there was an abnormality and sent her for further testing.
By January 2023, it was confirmed that Cozzy had an 8cm tumour growing in her liver.
Doctors didn’t know exactly what it was, so they scheduled her in for surgery three months later.
“They said I could have had it for years and it had just been slowly growing,” she explains.
With a long lead time until the surgery, Cozzy and Mitch decided to jump back on Ocean Lady and try to push the upcoming operation to the back of their minds.
Heading 1270km north of Perth to Exmouth, the couple spent three months swimming and enjoying the wind in their faces.
Cozzy says the travels were a nice distraction but she confesses she did spend her days riddled with panic about the surgery.
But when she was eventually wheeled out of theatre and into recovery she was met with the gleaming smile of her surgeon.
“He got it all,” Cozzy says.
The surgeon explained that the 8cm tumour had spread from her liver into her diaphragm, resulting in him having to remove 50 per cent of her liver.
Although the tumour was cancerous, the entire lesion was able to be removed.
And testing confirmed it hadn’t spread to other parts of her body.
Emotions washed over her as she was diagnosed — and declared cancer free — all in the same breath.
The surgeon finished his briefing by letting Cozzy know she could set sail again in two weeks.
This time, the couple lifted the sails on Ocean Lady and set sail for Indonesia.
“Breathing the beautiful air, the salt water, nature is just healing,” Cozzy smiles.
From the east to the west side of the island nation, they spent six months soaking up the ocean life while stopping in at small fishing towns along the way.
But the medical costs related to Cozzy’s health scare, and the slowing down of their online business, meant the couple couldn’t sustain their life on the water.
So the pair bid an emotional goodbye to Ocean Lady and are now back working full time.
They have launched a business they call Salty Straps, which sells beach accessories.
The couple haven’t given up their dreams and are saving to head back on the water in a new boat.
Right now, Cozzy is just thankful for her health — and is recommending everyone have a medical checkup.
“I didn’t have any real symptoms. I was lucky,” she says.
“But honestly, without sailing I don’t know what would have happened.
“Sailing saved my life.”
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