I was diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer at age 31. As a tradie, father, husband and mostly healthy guy, or so I thought, I never thought I would hear the words ' its cancer'.
Like a lot of people, I brushed some early signs off putting it down to diet, a busy working life and any other reason I could think of. After a bit of on and off bleeding I went to my doctor thinking I would get a nice and simple answer to my issues. Little did I know the storm I was about to become the centre of.
The following tests, oral chemo and radiation, surgeries, countless blood tests and injections, and finally a six-month course of chemo, changed me not just physically but mentally as well.
The greatest challenge I faced was not the pain, sickness or exhaustion from treatment, it was the fear and frustration that I could not be the father or husband that I had promised my kids and wife that I was going to be. It was the fear that I would not be there to see my kids grow and to grow old with my wife.