Karla

By Kelly Yates
BERWICK ballroom dancer Karla Gerbes is getting back into the swing of things after recently finishing radiation treatment for a leg tumour.
The 25-year-old, who is currently ranked the number one professional Latin dancer in Australia, was diagnosed with the tumour after a masseur in Jakarta detected a lump in her right leg last November.
After a series of scans and tests, it was revealed that the lump was a benign tumour.
“It looked like I had a golf ball behind my knee,” she said. Ms Gerbes told the News she had 30 sessions of radiation, finishing the treatment about six weeks ago.
“It was very hard going through treatment as I had to put my dancing on the back burner for a while and miss out on a few things, which was very difficult as dancing has always been everything to me,” she said.
“But when you go through something like this you realise that your health comes first and that I wouldn’t be able to dance without it.”
Ms Gerbes said she was happy when she found out she didn’t need surgery.
“Latin is a very aesthetic sport and I was worried about having a dent in my calf where the tumour would have been removed. Having a big gash in my leg isn’t the best look,” she said.
“The radiation was painful and my skin was red and blistered. I was walking with a limp,” she said. Ms Gerbes said she feels lucky as the circumstances could have been worse.
“After going into Peter Mac for six weeks and seeing how many young people were suffering from cancer makes you think how lucky we really are and to make the most of what we have,” she said.
Ms Gerbes, who started dancing at Bagheera’s The Dance Place in Hallam when she was eight-years-old, learns under the guidance of Dancing with the Stars judge Helen Richey. She said she feels her dancing career, with partner David Byrnes, is now starting to peak after four years of dancing together. The pair are training six days a week in preparation to represent Australia at the world championships held in England in November.
They will then return to Australia in December to try and regain their title at the 2009 Australian Dancesport Championships. “We want to win again. We have been undefeated in Australia all year. On the international circuit our best result was getting 27th at the UK Open in January,” she said.