MASSIVE MONTH OF JULY.....

A lot has happened this month. We celebrated our middle child, Kalita’s 5th birthday. It was brilliant and the smile on her face was priceless. As I have always said to be here for milestones and my children’s/wife’s birthdays are always a time to cherish.

Biggest Smile. 

Elsa Cake by Lisa Carnell. 

Cake and our gorgeous 5 year old

Kalita in her Ana dress up

Lisa did an amazing job with the cakes and decorations. Celebrating the day with family and friends is always enjoyable. Special moments need to be treasured.

The month of July also saw two mates (Jay Allen and Andrew Rust) of mine walk from Sydney to Melbourne 900km to raise money and awareness for Melanoma…….and they did this with ease. Their last leg of the walk was onto the MCG at quarter time of the Hawks V Swans game. As a Hawks supporter it was always on my calendar to attend and support the boys walk……The hawks won and I attended the game with my dad who has been an amazing support to Lisa, the girls and I. Lovely to spend this quality time with dad. Even though dad is a swans supporter and the loss for him was tough…..I didn’t rub it in. Kept quiet the whole time. Hopefully the Hawks can go back to back in 2014.

Boys Walking into Peter Mac Cancer centre

Sharing my journey at Peter Mac

Back to the 900km walkers their aim was to raise $100 000…….achieved this with a generous number of donations hitting the total of $150 000….. all funds will go towards Melanoma Research at the Melanoma Institute Australia….. focusing on Brain Metastases.  Prior to the walk into the MCG we had an event at Peter Mac Cancer centre to celebrate the boys achievements……I was invited to speak at this event, an honour to say the least.

The following day I met the boys at SEN sports central Radio show to have a half an hour live interview with host Brett Philips. The podcast is here for those who would like to listen.

Jay Allen, Andrew Rust, Brett Phillips and Myself

 

 

These inspiring guys and their efforts will be something I will always remember and cherish, Both cancer survivors …… My girls came the event and listened intently to the boys and my talk also…….I was anxious about this…..not with speaking in public part, but with what questions the girls will have about Cancer and Melanoma……they are still unaware of my illness. To my surprise they asked questions that really gave them a better understanding of what Melanoma is and what the event was about.  

Cancer has given me an opportunity to connect with many people and I have always said that it has allowed me to embrace the disease in a positive way and challenge myself to give back to those who are suffering.

SURGERY NUMBER 5 OVER THE PAST 18 months: 

In my last blog entry I had scans that still showed a tumour left in my chest area between the right lung and the ribs this has been there since October 2012 and slowly growing…..I also mentioned that my oncologist was looking into radiation or surgery……. By the end of July it was decided that I would have surgery……I am now recovering from Keyhole surgery that deflated my lung and allowed the surgeon to use a camera and a burning/cutting instrument to remove the last tumour. 

I went in on Friday 1^st August and had the tumour removed. I have added some photos and I will warn you they are graphic.

I received this image via an anonymous

Selfie

Drain Tube or Hose that was in my chest area.
The clear tube was inside me. 

My weekend recovery was short……the drain tube or should I say hose was removed on the Sunday and I was then released later this day. The image above shows the clear part of the hose that was inside my chest area …… To go home to my gorgeous girls was a relief….the short stay was a lot easier on Lisa and left me with the comfort of knowing it was less stress for all

I will say that my two weeks off work will be needed. I am really sore and finding it hard to sleep with comfort…… My chest areas feels like it has been ripped apart. The tumour has been removed and without a scan, declares me disease free. I am over the moon with this news. Cancer is not over….but a step in the right direction and I will take each challenge that may be ahead of me. This surgery has clearly left me off the bike for a while which will hurt even more…..Prior to surgery I was smashing the K’s and hills to get myself super fit for surgery. I was averaging 200km a week and climbing an average of about 1800m a week. This time off will give Matty time to get fit and recover from some heavy rides we have had.

All is well….I will be back to work soon and on the bike sooner rather than later. Time and patients is needed. Having time at home is a huge bonus…… time to do school and kinder pick ups and drop offs…. see the girls at gymnastics and swimming.

In the coming month I have a couple of presentations to do with Education groups and a cancer event. I have been invited to present my story to the Diamond Valley Sporting Centre and I am thrilled to do this…..as well as talk to my old Footy Club and the players about Finals footy.

Promotional Poster I had nothing to do with.
Tour De Cure Crew should be happy with the promotion. 

Hope everyone is well.

REMEMBER TO HUG YOUR LOVED ONE'S XXX