One day Rosey picked up on the fact that one of Andrew’s moles didn’t look good and wanted him to go to the doctor. And being a typical male, and probably a typical farmer, he said no, don’t worry about it. But after 2 visits to the doctor and a biopsy, Andrew was told that he had melanoma. Andrew had to travel to Sydney to the Melanoma Clinic where they removed the cancer, which was the burrowing and spreading type. Regularly tests revealed no further cancer.

Until 9 years later. Last year, Andrew discovered a big lump under his arm. Andrew was sent to Canberra for a PET scan and was told he had melanoma again. Plus cancer in his lymph nodes. So it was back to Sydney, to the Melanoma Clinic, where the melanoma and all the lymph nodes under his arm were removed. Andrew then had to undergo immunotherapy for 12 months – Rosey had to push hard to get this done in Goulburn (100km round trip), versus Canberra (280km round trip). 

A further PET scan revealed that Andrew then had kidney cancer. Once again Andrew had surgery to remove the cancer. Andrew has had to have a lot of time off work, which is hard when you are a farmer. And have traveled about 6,000 kms over the last 12 months, as the only services that can access locally are some of the required scans and the immunotherapy. 

Can Assist gave Rosey and Andrew vouchers to help with fuel and food, they paid for Andrew’s specialist and for a number of Andrew’s scans. “Can Assist helped us both emotionally and financially …just knowing that there were other people there who’d been through this and were willing to help us was amazing… especially at our lowest point”. 

As told by his wife Rosey