Sally Fletcher

Sally Fletcher Keating is a fictional character in the Australian soap Home and Away, portrayed by Kate Ritchie.

When Sally debuted in Home and Away ' s first episode in 1988, she was the youngest child in a family of foster kids. 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.

When she was 5½, 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 in 1990, and wasn't too keen on Pippa seeing Michael Ross. Her animosity was eventually relieved, 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 was with a few boys in her teenage years, and had tough times with them. Scott almost raped her, and Tim became so obsessed with her that he became jealous when he saw her with any other boy, even if they were only friends. 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. After that an incident happend with Deisel a reported Gay person fell inlove with Sally. Deisel kissed Sally twice. Later Deisel would run away from Summer Bay after people found out he had been abusing Sally.

Before the days of Flynn Saunders, Sally didn’t have many serious relationships, but her first long-term relationship was with Vinnie Patterson. This eventually ended due to Vinnie's immaturity. Sally then 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 was never finalised, because Gypsy revealed Kieran's actions towards her. Sally demanded the truth from him and they eventually broke up. Most recently Sally found a stable relationship in Flynn Saunders, and the two got married and eventually moved into Sally's old home (Summmer Bay House) at the caravan park. Sally continued to use her adoptive maiden name of Fletcher instead of taking on Flynn's name. Sally & Flynn couldn't afford to buy both the house and the caravan park, so she was surprised when her foster-mother Pippa bought the caravan park for her some time later, knowing how much it meant to Sally. 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 get rid of 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 for a surrogate mother to have their baby. Luckily for them, Sally’s foster sister Sophie came forward and offered to help them out. Over Christmas, all the arrangements were made and Sally and Flynn were expecting to bring home their own baby in around seven months time. Unfortunately, Sophie miscarried their baby and the couple turned to their friend Leah instead. Their daughter, named Pippa after her foster mother Pippa Fletcher/Ross, was born in 2004.

In 2005, they took in homeless teenagers Eric 'Ric' Dalby (Mark Furze) and Cassandra 'Cassie' Turner (Sharni Vinson), who they are now raising as their own, just as Sally's foster parents did at the beginning of the series. Sally was recently kidnapped by a boy called Diesel who was one of her students. Diesel had said that Sally had behaved inappropriately towards him, for which Sally almost lost her job, but he finally confessed the truth when he was caught and overpowered by Flynn, after Diesel had got into the house with a duplicate key and threatened to harm baby Pippa. Later that year (2005), Sally was devastated to learn that Flynn had cancer in vital organs of his body due to advanced melanoma and had only three months to live.

Flynn died on February 13, 2006, leaving Sally to bring up her young family on her own.

Before Flynn passed away, he wanted Sally to remarry. Which brings Brad Armstrong into the picture.

At the end of the 2006 Home and Away season finale, which was aired on 2006-12-01, Sally was stabbed by Rocco, who was told to do this by his criminal brother. At the end of the episode, Sally is shown to be alive, but the season concluded with a video film clip for the Evermore song "Light Surrounding You", which chronicled Sally's life.