"They're writing a story about me for the paper," Dee tells a man at Halo community centre.
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He grins. "They're gonna need the whole paper."
As we walk through the community op shop and kitchen, Dee is greeted with identical smiles and hugs from people who aren't related, but who she calls family.
The op shop and community centre on Gibson Street resembles a chaotic version of Santa's workshop. Filled to the brim with food, necessities and toy donations, Halo team members hurry about the place, attending to visitors and getting bits sorted for upcoming events.
For the past six years, the shop, community centre and the recently closed homeless shelter have been helping people in Mandurah who are vulnerable or homeless, providing necessities, aid with expenses or just friendly faces who care.
Distinguished by a suitably-chosen logo consisting of a heart and angel wings, the Halo Community Op shop is a favourite stop for locals where all proceeds go back into the Mandurah community, funding the adjoining welfare centre.
Well-known within the Mandurah area, the Halo Team have been in headlines many times for their endless work helping those in need and raising funds or donations for various community causes.
It all began when Dianna (Dee) Freitag saw a need in the community, and decided to do something about it.
After an uneasy upbringing, experiencing homelessness and using drugs herself, Dee realised there were gaps in the welfare system that weren't being met.
"My upbringing wasn't easy. Growing up, I didn't have any support services around, and I spent a lot of nights where I was sleeping rough and I didn't have anyone," Dee explained.
"That sort of all snowballed into me deciding that I was going to start my own organisation and find ways to help people with things that they needed or weren't able to get help with at the time."
Starting with a homeless shelter, Dee founded non-profit organisation Halo in 2014. It later grew to include the op shop in 2015 and then the community kitchen in 2016.
Then in 2019, Dee was in the shower when she had the idea to check herself for breast cancer.
"It was a Saturday night. That's when I started feeling and straight away I felt it and tears just poured and I knew. I just knew."
I said to them, Halo's here. If you need services, there are people around. So many people don't have people around.
- Dianna (Dee) Frietag
After getting a small pre-cancer cut out of her breast two years earlier, Dee said she only checked herself again after hearing about a friend who received a cancer diagnosis.
Feeling something the size of a golf ball, she immediately went to the doctors, who confirmed the bad news.
"That's when I found out that there are so many types of breast cancers and that the one that I've got is like 10 per cent worldwide. It's actually got hardly any research around it," she said.
Dee was diagnosed with triple negative high grade invasive ductal carcinoma, which doesn't respond to hormone therapy medicines like other cancers.
"I was like, I'm in the sh*t here."
Reluctantly accepting help from the community to cover her medical costs, Dee then went through the first round of chemotherapy.
"They call it the red devil. It made me real sick. All my hair fell out straight away, I couldn't move, I was vomiting, it was horrible."
Dee had both her breasts removed that year, before going through more chemo and radiation therapy, leaving her with burns that are still red on her chest.
While Dee was in and out of hospital, Halo sized up to their new community op shop on Gibson Street, with donations flooding in and more people becoming aware of the organisation.
Dee was named Mandurah's local legend in 2019 for helping countless people in the community who were homeless, at risk or in need, even while she faced her own cancer battle.
Despite the rigorous surgery and treatments, a PET scan in November revealed worse news. Finding cancer in her internal mammary chain, doctors told Dee her diagnosis was terminal.
The treatments began again, and by late 2020, the cancer was gone.
"I was so stoked. It'd really kicked my ass, the chemo was really hard. But I'd won. I got full response."
But then early this year, Dee received gutting news. Another PET check-up scan revealed the cancer was back, and with a vengeance.
"It was in my internal mammary nodes, my bones, my sternum, my muscle, my rib cage and my lungs," she said.
Going through more rounds of chemo, Dee has been in and out of hospital this year. But her focus remains on helping other people.
During her cancer journey, she started making chemo packs to give to people going through the painstaking treatment, and referred other patients to Halo if they needed help covering costs.
"I said to them, Halo's here if you need services, there's people around. So many people don't have people around."
Talking about Christmas day and the upcoming Christmas appeal, Dee's tone switches to pure excitement.
"I'm having two weeks off (from chemo) and I'm doing the Christmas hamper appeal which I love being a part of every single year. That's thirteen hundred hampers going out to families in the Peel region who need it."
Along with the appeal, Dee said she was looking forward to celebrations and sales at the store next week, including a store party for her birthday on the 23rd, where customers will be able to see inside the community centre and kitchen.
Regardless of her ongoing battle with cancer, Dee's smile has remained steadfast. She said despite everything, she is happy.
"I believe that it's happened for a reason. I've met some really amazing people through my journey, and I've been able to help some really wonderful people that are going through the same thing as me.
"There's part of it that I'm glad I've learnt. I wish I could take what's in my head and share it with everybody, and have them see the way I see things now.
Dee says her focus will stay on the things that are important to her. Her husband and four kids, her family at Halo, and helping others in every way that she can.
"We stress over stupid sh*t but there's no point to it. I'm happy because I'm alive, I'm doing what I love and I spend my days doing things that I'm passionate about."
