Sarah Smith has been the Dealer Principal at Lismore Toyota for the last eight years. Last week, Sarah said goodbye to her staff as she began a new chapter in her life after suffering a rare disease and a near-death surgery.

Lismore Toyota used to be located on Ballina Road, Lismore (that is to be redeveloped after a recent DA approval) before moving to the new site on Kraus Avenue, South Lismore in November 2016.

Sarah talked to the Lismore App about the reason for selling Lismore Toyota.

"I got diagnosed with a pituitary tumour (non-cancerous) two years ago, and at the time, was given five years to live or potentially 10, if I was very lucky."

"So, I had two brain surgeries to remove what they could of the tumour. It was quite a large tumour by the time they found it.

After the surgeries, I went on to a sort of monthly treatment, and I have actually managed to be in chemical remission. I am now basically back to a full life expectancy but with ongoing treatment for the rest of my life."

"The treatment is once a month by injection, but it makes me feel pretty rough for a good week."

"Because of the tumour causing massive blood pressure in my head, I ended up with a brain aneurysm. So, I had that operated on last year. In the last two years, I've had three brain surgeries. They operated on the aneurysm and I actually had a stroke and a brain haemorrhage while they were operating."

"I was incredibly lucky to make it out of the surgery alive. Then, I actually lost a friend of mine to the same surgery. And I think after that, I kind of, had a little bit of a rude awakening as to how close I'd come to not being around. So, after that, we decided that if we could find the right person to buy me out and take over the business that would, I guess, support the staff in the same way and have the same culture and be able to continue to build the business, then I would be ready to sell and basically just spend some time with my family and step back."

"Yeah, I decided to take the opportunity and, slow down and smell the roses basically."

Enter new Lismore Toyota Dealer Principal Tom Rocks.

Tom is from Melbourne but is not new to the Northern Rivers having had family move here over time.

"I've got a brother in Murwillumbah and I've got cousins in Ocean Shores and I've got another cousin in Yamba. So, this has been sort of my holidays slash summer for twenty-odd years."

"When I drove up here from Melbourne to move up here, I got the same excited feeling I got when I was driving up on holidays with the kids in the car, but I was on my own (laughs). I had to keep reminding myself this is not a holiday."

"There's a sense of familiarity here with the area, and, you know, it's just got some sentimental value to me. So, when this opportunity came up, I had to give it some serious consideration."

Tom has been with Toyota for 16 years, with eight of those running a dealership about the size of Lismore Toyota as General Manager. Tom has a partner, Jo, who works for the ABC in Melbourne as well as Channel 10 in Sydney, along with two sons aged 7 and 4.

"We knew we could sort of make it work. It made sense. While the boys were at that age, if we were ever going to do something like this, it was now. It was one of those moments in time when things lined up."

While the kids finish off their school year, Tom will get settled at Lismore Toyota and think about where the family may want to live. Tom and Jo will be looking for a bit of land as Tom wants to keep goats.

"We don't know yet. We live in inner city Melbourne, St Kilda and I'm not sure if we want that sort of experience up here. St Kilda is the second most visited part of Victoria, outside of the Melbourne CBD, so from September through to March in St Kilda, it's rammed. So, we've kept a really open mind. We will spend the next 12 months finding out where in this local area we want to go. I really like Clunes and Bexhill."

"We've enrolled our kids into school in Byron because we really like the principal. So we'll need to be within 20 minutes, half an hour of the school zone. So, it'd be somewhere in that area."

What about Lismore and Lismore Toyota?

"Lismore is a powerhouse. You know, it's a beautiful, beautiful part of the world and it's growing. I just want to get into the community and be a part of it and contribute. People operate differently everywhere you go and I just want to understand the local community. It seems very strong, loyal and fierce and I like that."

"Everybody here at the business has just made me feel so welcome. When I drove off yesterday, I was quite emotional. It was a really lovely start, you know, and I've been a part of a few of these now and they're not always so lovely."

"I had a sense that it would be like that. I'd spent some time with Sarah's business partners and we got along really well. When you're around people and you are instantly yourself, you know you're in a good place."

While Tom steps into Lismore Toyota and starts to put his own mark on it. What is next for the outgoing Sarah Smith? When you have built up an incredible business over the last eight years, it is difficult to step back completely.

"Ever since I sort of bought my first house, I've had a passion for renovating. So, I just bought a couple of properties in Casino, and obviously, with the market the way it is and the rental property shortage, I'm gonna basically just renovate some houses. I'm going to don the tool belt. I love painting and I love anything to do with interior decorating. I've actually enrolled in a diploma for interior design as well, just to keep my brain going."

"This is a sort of semi-retirement hobby type thing."

"I will do some more community work as well and probably some charity work, because that's one of the things that I've loved doing with Toyota, as well as being able to make a difference to the community. So I'm certainly not going to disappear from that side of things."

While Sarah and her family deal with the challenges that lay ahead, Lismore and the Northern Rivers will still be seeing her smiling face and benefitting from her community and charity work.