Mal’s Quiet Battle with Distance 

When Mal found a lump in his neck, he and his wife Alison never imagined how far the diagnosis would take them from home. The treatment offering him the best chance of recovery from throat cancer was in Sydney – more than 375 kilometres from their life in Lake Cathie. 

Unable to afford accommodation near the hospital, Mal stayed in a small caravan park nearly an hour away. Each treatment day became its own long journey: a 16‑minute walk to the station, two trains across the city, and another 10‑minute walk to the hospital. After hours of radiation and chemotherapy, he repeated the whole trip in reverse. 

People in the city take those same trains – but they go home afterwards. To their own beds. Their own routines. Their own families. Mal returned to a caravan, carrying a fatigue that went far beyond the physical. 

With fuel prices now rising so sharply that many country patients are struggling to afford travel, Mal says the decision to go ahead with treatment would have been even tougher today. Alison would not have been able to make the many trips to and from Sydney that she did – trying to support both Mal in Sydney and her young daughters at home. 

What made the difference for them was Can Assist. Support with accommodation and medical costs eased enough pressure for Mal to stay the course. 

Today, his tumour is responding. He is still exhausted and recovering slowly – but he’s home, surrounded by the family who carried him through the long way there and back.