STUDYING gemmology while recovering from cancer isn’t everyone’s idea of rest and relaxation, but for GP Danielle Klar it helped create a whole new direction.

Danielle now runs her boutique jewellery concierge Plumery in Deakin with her daughter Jess, and says she loves showing clients different gems and creating personalised designs.

In the years before her breast cancer diagnosis in 2014, she had been a high-flyer in the RAAF, the ADF, the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture and had major career aspirations.

“I loved the complexity of managing lots of people and large operations, and I wanted to be the first doctor who was secretary of the Department of Health, or the first female who was secretary of the Department of Defence – that’s where my goals were at the time,” she says.

As there was a history of breast cancer in the family, mum-of-five Danielle, 45, says she was used to regular check ups so when she was diagnosed she thought: “It’s minor, it’s early”.

“I didn’t talk to anyone about it, just told work I’d be away for two weeks. I really thought I’d get the lump out and it would all be fine but it didn’t work out that way,” she says.

Danielle suffered complications with skin grafts following surgery and recovery was slow. And then after almost a year, as she was thinking of going back to work, she started to get short of breath.

“I thought I was unfit from a long period of being sick,” she says. “Then one evening I had enormous chest pain and couldn’t breathe.”

Doctors said she had huge clots in her legs that had moved to her lungs and told her she was “all but dead”.

“I was so short of breath that I couldn’t eat with my mouth open or finish a sentence and, after treatment, I was back to total bed rest,” she says.

“I hated being a patient, I’m always busy and organised and things are happening, so to lose that control again was tough,” she says.

Danielle says it was at this point that she thought maybe she wasn’t meant to go back to work.

“The kids loved me being at home, they weren’t used to it as I’d always been a working mum,” she says.

“I began to feel I didn’t want to go back to a job where I was spending 80 hours a week at work.

“I knew I was capable of getting to where I’d wanted in my career, but I also knew what it would take. And I thought, what for? There are other things that make me happy. And that’s what I did.”

Danielle started her gemmology diploma by correspondence and says she was studying in bed, not being able to breathe well but still reading through her notes.

“I’d loved gems as a child but I’d never had time to pursue it with family and work,” she says.

“I started acquiring gems and making things for family and friends, and Plumery grew over that next year. My husband Brendan encouraged me to take it further, and we set up the studio in 2017 by fitting out part of his medical practice next door.

“I’m having fun. I love the reveal at the end of the design process, when you’ve created something from a drawing or a painting and you finally get to see it. People have such different ideas about what they love and I can never predict what they will want.”

Danielle still works part-time as a doctor and surgical assistant with her husband, and has annual check-ups for her health.

“There’s always a silver lining in change, sometimes you don’t end up where you think you will. And that can be a good thing. You’ve got to look past that sometimes, and not get caught up in the loss,” she says.

“I’d never have imagined I’d end up where I am but I’m very happy.

“Maybe you don’t have to get cancer and nearly die to make a change. I wouldn’t have changed direction without it, so for me that’s what it took. Cancer was a new chapter, a sense of what’s next?

“And sometimes the next chapter is really sparkly.”

Plumery is open by appointment only. Level 1, Equinox Building 1, 70 Kent Street, Deakin; plumery.com.au