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Sally was just three years old when she lost her parents in a boating accident. She went to live with her grandmother and her love helped Sally adjust to the loss of her parents and feel secure again.
Then, when she was five-and-a-half, Mrs Keating was diagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease. As her condition worsened, the household routine fell apart and Sally often missed school to stay home and look after her grandmother.
One of her teachers brought the situation to the attention of the Welfare Dept, who put her in a home when they realised she wasn't being properly cared for. When she arrived at the home, she put up walls and retreated into a fantasy world, creating an imaginary friend called Milko.
Sally was fostered by Tom and Pippa Fletcher, who eventually decided to adopt her as their own child. Sally was devastated when Tom died, and was not too keen on Pippa seeing Michael. She eventually came round, when Michael reassured her he wasn't going to replace Tom.
When Sally reached her teens, she began to rebel. She was caught by Alf, drunk at a beach party.
Sally was kidnapped by a person who had a crush on her when they were at school.
Sally has been with a few boys, and had tough times with them. Scott almost raped her, and Tim got too obsessed with her that he got jealous when he saw her with any other boy, even though it's only a friend.
Sally was an uni student and a manageress for Bonza Burgers. When Adam returned to the Bay, she was sacked later on for refusing to meet Adam's demands. She helped Vinnie with is war against Adam, in the end, they won and she got her job back, on her conditions.
Sally left for Ireland for a brief holiday. When she came back, she brought Kieran with her. After a short time, they became engaged. Their wedding was arranged for the middle of 2000. She was delighted when old faces returned to the Bay to see her wedding.
The wedding never finished when Gypsy revealed Kieran's actions towards her. Sally demanded the truth from him. She is single now.
When Pippa decided to leave the bay and move to the city, Sally was forced to choose between the surf and the city. As she had just started her archaeology degree at the time, Sally chose to stay in the bay, to the delight of many of her friends.
Sally hasn't had many strong relationships, but her first long relationship was with Vinnie Patterson, however this ended, and Sally found herself down the aisle about to marry another man. Unfortunately this other man had been cheating on her and she found out just in time, before it was too late. Most recently Sally has found the true love of her life in Flynn Saunders, and the two are happily living together.
Not too long ago, Sally and Flynn decided to start a family, but Sally was found to have ovarian cancer, and was unable to have children of her own. After having an operation to cure the cancer, Sally realised that her dream of having kids would never come true. However, before the operation Sally had some of her eggs frozen and was told that with the help of a surrogate mother she and Flynn would be able to have the family that they always wanted. The two of them, spent time looking to find a surrogate mother to have their baby. Luckily for them, Sally's foster sister came forward and offered to help them out. Over Christmas, all the arrangements were made but before anything could go ahead Sophie fell pregnant herself. Whilst delighted for Sophie, Sally and Flynn were gutted at the lost opportunity until Leah offered to be surrogate instead.
To the delight of all involved Leah fell pregnant and Sally and Flynn excitedly prepared for their baby's arrival. It was not plain sailing though as Sally began to feel sidelined and Leah began to develop feelings for Flynn with them sharing a kiss. Despite a rocky period Sally and Flynn managed to recover and were stronger than ever with Flynn treating Sally to a romantic picnic. While they were away however, Leah went into labour and after a frantic search Sally and Flynn arrived at the hospital just in time to see their baby daughter born. Despite a mix up over Colleen assuming the baby would be named after her, Sally and Flynn eventually named their baby Pippa after Sally's beloved foster mother.
The rest of 2004 was actually a pretty quiet year for Sally and Flynn on the story line front, although between them they were involved in all the key incidents including the siege at Leah's house when Sarah Lewis shot dead Noah Lawson.
Flynn's mistake during surgery, leaving Leah unable to have children sparked the beginning of marriage troubles for Flynn and Sally as he began increasingly to use drugs in order to work longer and longer shifts. Around this time they took in Alf's grandson Ric Dalby, giving him a home and later Cassie Turner, who's grandmother Joy Foxton died of a heart attack leaving Cassie's only relative as the Uncle who abused her as a child. After confiding the truth Sally and Flynn offered her a home but their marriage continued to struggle. At the same time the summer bay stalker had begun terrorising the bay with notes, bombs, plane crashes and seemed to have it in for Sally, making several attempts at her life, eventually kidnapping her.
The stalker then revealed herself to Sally, to be nurse Zoe McAllister, real name Eve Jacobson and explained her motive as being revenge for her lover Sarah Lewis. With the help of Peter Baker, Sally managed to escape psychotic Eve's clutches and she and Flynn managed to sort out their differences.
New student in town Diesel seemed to be innocent enough at first and Sally took pity on him, arranging extra tuition but it soon became clear that he was infatuated with Sally and when she rejected him, he accused her of taking advantage of him. Sacked from the job she loved Sally was then terrified to find Diesel in her bedroom with her daughter Pippa. Eventually getting through to him, Diesel was taken away and Sally reinstated at the school.
Unfortunately the worst was yet to come for tragic Sally when, after giving a demonstration at the school, Flynn was found to have skin cancer and in some of the most moving episodes of Home and Away ever; Flynn passed away in Sally's arms after a final dance to 'their song'.
Flynn's death saw the union of two of home and Away's oldest characters with Alf honouring his promise to Flynn and moving into the Caravan Park house to take care of Sally.
The return of the Summer Bay Stalker, Alf's wrongful imprisonment, marital woes between her best friends Dan and Leah and troubles with Ric and Cassie kept Sally occupied for the rest of the year. In the aftermath of the stalker's return explosion at Jack and Martha's wedding and the helicopter crash Sally met Rachel's brother Brad Armstrong and there seemed to be an instant connection. Except that Brad began acting increasingly weird when Sally mentioned Flynn and then introduced her to his fiancee Emily.
When Emily revealed to Sally that she had terminal leukaemia, Sally put aside her own memories of Flynn to support Brad and Emily and when Emily finally passed away she comforted Brad. Rocco Cooper's arrival in town had caused troubles between Sally and Brad when Sally wanted to give ex-gang member Rocco a chance and offered him a room in her house. Brad, however was convinced that Rocco couldn't change and when his brother and gang leader, Johnny Cooper arrived in the Bay and instantly began terrorising Brad, it seemed he was right. Brad backed down though when Rocco turned up, seemingly beaten by Johnny and Sally asked him to move in with them. Johnny meanwhile continued to terrorise Brad eventually running him off the road and as Sally tended to his injuries they shared a 'moment' and finally admitted they had feelings for each other. Whilst agreeing that they'd always love Flynn and Emily, Sally and Brad decided to give their relationship a go.
Unknown to Sally and Brad though Rocco was still very much under his brother's influence, despite his attempts to get out and on Johnny's orders, had begun stealing from the Caravan Park Bank Account and was helping Johnny carry out a spate of robberies in the Bay. Under influence from PC Ash Nader and with the realisation he'd never be free, Rocco betrayed his brother to help the police catch Johnny but Johnny overheard and changed the plans. At this point though Sally had become suspicious of Rocco and after some snooping, unearthed the gang's plan and went to the Police, which led to Johnny's arrest.
Johnny though, wasn't prepared to let Sally get away with having him arrested and in an ultimatum to his brother, told Rocco he had to kill Sally or be killed himself. In the gripping Australian season finale a sobbing Rocco appeared to hug Sally before stabbing her and leaving her to die in the car park of the School. Fortunately Sally recovered but could not remember who had attacked her and feeling guilty over her suspicions about Rocco, asked him to move back in. Under pressure from Johnny, Rocco again made an attempt on Sally's life but couldn't go through with it. Meanwhile Sally was beginning to remember and on realising this, Rocco took off. He was confronted by a furious Ric who beat him before he managed to flee the Bay and go to his brother for help.
With Johnny giving him the address of a safe house, a grateful Rocco headed there and the next he was seen was when Johnny sent Ric to the same destination and Sally, Brad and Matilda found Ric stood over Rocco's battered body. With Ric arrested for murder, Rocco then died in hospital leading to Ric being wrongly imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, much to Sally's devastation.
Ric was released from prison not long after and Sally and Brad continued to progress in their relationship with Brad 'staying over' but hiding from the rest of the household. When they were caught out gained the family's seal of approval for their relationship the decided to go the whole way and Brad moved in.
After failing to tell the Department about the situation between Lucas and Naomi, Brad was suspended and Sally appointed Principal in his place. At first things were okay but when Brad was eventually stood down as Principle and Sally given his job, their relationship was put under strain.
Sally took an interest in Annie and Geoff Campbell when she discovered they hadn't ever attended school but was furious when Brad went over her head and informed the Department about them. There were further rows between them as Brad alternated between being over zealous and not doing anything whilst Sally struggled with her increasing workload. She was shocked to hear that Brad had a history of marijuana use and was left in a difficult position when he was sacked as headmaster and she was given his job.
In a flashback episode we realised that Brad had proposed to Sally and organised a surprise engagement party but that she had refused him and now he, Ric, Alf, Dan and Jack were all missing on Alf's boat in a storm. They later showed up safe and well and Sally accepted Brad's proposal. Sally was surprised when Donald Fisher returned to the bay and she gave him the Deputy Head's job but he clashed with both Brad and Cassie.
She and Brad were at crossroads over the wedding plans, they seemed to want total opposite things and whilst Brad was enthusiastic, Sally was noticeably reluctant. Eventually she agreed to a soonish wedding but it was clear her heart wasn't in it. Leah tried to convince her it was okay to have doubts and Sally convinced herself it would be okay.
In the run up to the wedding though everything seemed to go wrong. A mirror was cracked at her hen party, Henk's wrist was twisted at Brad's stag party and then Henk and Cassie were found together leading Rachel to reveal that Henk had raped her and Brad to beat him. With severe cold feet Sally tried to cancel the wedding but Brad was insistent it went ahead as planned.
On the morning of the wedding though Sally finally broke down to Pippa and admitted she couldn't marry Brad. Pippa broke the news to a devastated Brad as Sally confided in Mr Fisher that marrying Brad felt like a betrayal of Flynn. Brad though refused to forgive her for jilting him and Cassie and Ric made it clear that they were disappointed in her.
Rachel laid into her, Cassie took off to the city after Henk, Ric headed off on a mechanic course and Brad moved out. Sally struggled to cope with her increasing workload, her distress at having hurt Brad and the tension at school. She eventually broke down and Brad bought Cassie home. With her children back around her things started to look up for Sally and she even convinced herself that Brad might relent and move back in, only for him to rent a house of his own, leaving her gutted.
Sally was devastated when an accident saw Alf run over Pippa. As the little girl fought for her life Sally refused to forgive the family friend, sobbing to Leah that he was her 'safe place' and now she no longer felt safe. Brad and her family rallied round to support her and Pippa made a full recovery. Eventually Sally was able to forgive Alf and he moved back in. Sally's hopes were risen when she shared a kiss with Brad but he quickly halted her thoughts by telling her that though he knew they loved each other, it wasn't enough for her. He told he wasn't what she wanted and a reluctant Sally agreed. They parted amicably and he moved to a new job in Tasmania.
Sally was shocked when after a conversation with Baby Pippa about her imaginary friend Milco, she saw his name written in the sand. When she tried to show Cassie though, it had disappeared. She became intrigued by the seemingly down and out Miles and gave him a caravan and a job. The two forged a bond with Sally confiding in her counsellor and later Miles that she felt strangely close to him and wasn't sure why. Miles eventually confided in her the similarities between them, they were both teachers and he had lost his wife and child in a tragic accident. He then proceeded to tell Sally that he was her brother, estranged from her as a child. At first Sally refused to believe him but eventually her own memories returned and she was delighted to realise that Miles was in fact her twin brother.
Sally's joy didn't last for long though as Johnny Cooper broke out of jail and using Colleen as bait, broke into the caravan park. In the scuffle that ensued Sally was stabbed and experienced a near death experience, seeing Tom, her original foster father. Tom told her that she wasn't meant to die and therefore had a choice. He showed her what the bay would be like without her and also what she'd be missing out on if she went back. Sally eventually chose to go back but Tom then informed her that somebody would have to die in her place.
A few days later she heard that Dan had died and blamed herself. In her absence from school she was replaced by Martin Bartlett and later informed that she was to be removed as Principal of Summer Bay High. With Miles's support she gave in her resignation to the department and made the decision to leave the bay and go travelling with Cassie and Pippa. Miles organised a farewell speech night for her which turned out to be a moving concert with pupils past and present paying tribute to her and her foster mother Pippa, sister Carly, brother Steven and old friend Floss making a surprise experience. She gave a moving speech and afterwards a party was held in the Pier diner in her honour. She returned to the Caravan Park House with her family that night only to find the place had been robbed. All her belongings had already gone on ahead but Sally felt guilty and talked about postponing her departure. A long talk with Pippa convinced her that she should stick with her original plan.
After reminiscing with Carly she shared her second to last scene with Miles, signing over half the house to him. They both thanked each other for saving them and Sally told him she was going to Puket to honour his dead wife and daughter. They exchanged a tearful hug and Sally headed to the beach to say her final goodbye. Alf Stewart approched her as she stared out to sea and told her that she would be able to recall the beach anywhere she went in the world. They reminisced about the past twenty years and Alf told her he was as proud of her as if she had been his own. With a tearful hug Sally told him she would miss him the most and he asked her to call him Alf. she replied "you'll always be Mr Stewart to me, Alf" before heading up the beach to Pippa's waiting car and driving out of the bay for good.
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