Sally Fletcher

Sally Louise Fletcher (née Keating) is portrayed by actress Kate Ritchie. She is the longest-serving fictional character in the Australian soap Home and Away, along with Ray Meagher, they have played Sally and Alf since January 17, 1988.

Character
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 is 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 died 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 died 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.

After much thought, Brad finally proposes to Sally, despite the controversy surrounding Brad being stood down as Principal of Summer Bay High because Naomi Campbell alleged him for marijuana possession in West Australia (though it was for medical uses on Emily), but Sally still has feelings for Flynn, so she stood him up at the wedding.

She drove the family apart for letting Cassie stay with Henk, and Ric went off for a training camp.

She became distraught when Alf hit her daughter Pippa. While she was able to make a full recovery, she resented Alf, while Brad resented Sally,

But Alf & Sally patched things up on Pippa's homecoming party, with help from Leah after she snapped for losing trust with Alf.