Wayne’s Story
“Please ask for help. It will change your life.”
It started with something that seemed small — trouble swallowing food, especially bread. Wayne found himself needing to drink water just to get food down. Working at the time, he noticed the symptoms were getting harder to ignore. Thinking it might be reflux, he visited the GP.
It was suspected to be a hernia. Time for a more accurate diagnostics: a CT scan in Tamworth, then a PET scan, which meant a long trip to Newcastle. The scans revealed something no one wants to hear – cancer of the oesophagus.
Wayne’s journey since that July 2023 diagnosis has been relentless. He began six weeks of radiation — five days a week, travelling back and forth from his home in Gunnedah to Tamworth. At the same time, he was receiving weekly chemotherapy.
Radiation alone wasn’t enough. His tumour was so obstructive that even a feeding tube couldn’t be inserted at first. When they finally managed it, Wayne endured months of liquid-only nutrition, relentless nausea, and three hospital stays. “I couldn’t even swallow a tablet,” he says. “Everything had to go through the tube.”
“We’d never heard of Can Assist. If we had, it didn’t sink in — until we needed them.” Wayne’s wife Carol first reached out during a crisis: a $600 box of feeding formula had to be thrown out because it didn’t fit his tube. A replacement cost hundreds more. “I was just talking on the phone, and they said, ‘We can help with that.’ It was pure relief.”
Despite the hardships, Wayne fought on. In October, he underwent major surgery at RPA in Sydney — a terrifying experience that ended up being even more traumatic when surgeons discovered the cancer had spread to his liver. The tumour couldn’t be removed. Wayne needed to be resuscitated three times in ICU. His family was told “if he can survive 3 days, he’ll be all right”.
Eight days later, the feeding tube was out. “That was the first thing I checked when I woke up,” he says. “I reached up and thought — thank God.” The tumour had shrunk enough to allow him to start eating soups, then soft solids. That night, he had steamed fish — “the best hospital meal I’ve ever had.”
Since then, Wayne’s treatment has continued with determination. He’s now on high-dose chemotherapy every two weeks — a combination of in-clinic infusion in Tamworth, followed by 46 hours of home-administered chemo through a small pump attached to a port in his chest. In March 2025, he returned to RPA for liver ablation. Only one lesion could be treated — the other is too close to his bowel — so doctors are using chemo to target both the liver and remaining activity in the oesophagus.
“They’re treating the secondaries,” Wayne says, “which they don’t usually do — but because I’m doing well, they’re giving me every chance.”
He’s gone from 80kg to 62kg and back up to 77.5kg. He eats frequently, walks daily, and jokes that his cat keeps him on a strict 5am breakfast schedule.
Wayne and Carol have travelled 18,600 kilometres for appointments, scans, and surgery — from Gunnedah to Tamworth, Newcastle, and Sydney. Can Assist has helped with petrol, motel costs — even Wayne’s glasses. “They’ve lifted stress we didn’t know how to carry. And now we can just ring them for a chat. They’ve become friends.”
Every trip has been worth it. Every setback has been met with strength. And every day that he can eat a full meal, get up early, and go about his day feels like a win.
Being Wayne’s Carer: “You don’t realise how tough it is to be a carer — until it’s you.”
Wayne has cancer of the oesophagus and liver. He’s had liver surgery and now travels fortnightly to Tamworth for chemotherapy. “It seems to be keeping it under control. I’m gaining weight, eating better, doing a bit of work around the place. Life feels better than it has for a long time.”
But behind Wayne’s quiet resilience is a story of enormous strain — and quiet strength. His wife Carol has been there through it all.
When Wayne was first diagnosed, they were isolated — in a new town, with few friends and no idea what to expect. “We didn’t know what was normal. Didn’t know who to ask. We were so alone.”
“When someone you love has cancer, you go through it too,” says Carol. “You’re carrying their pain, your own fears, the appointments, the changes, the financial stress — all of it.”
“As a carer, it’s tough,” she says. “So hard. You’re responsible for everything — the appointments, the driving, the shopping, the feeding tubes, the bills. You’ve got to hold it together for them — and put up with the crankiness. It’s not their fault. It’s the cancer. But it takes its toll.”
“Asking for help made me feel sick at first,” she says. “But it changed everything. Because when you’re living with cancer, it’s 24/7. You can’t plan anything. You just try to get through.”
Can Assist helped with travel, fuel, accommodation — and something harder to put into words: relief. “Every time they helped us, it just felt like we could breathe again,” she says. “It took that stress off me as a carer — stress Wayne probably didn’t even know I had.”
To others unsure about reaching out, she has a message:
“I understand how hard it is to ring Can Assist and ask for help. But please do it. It changes your life.”
