Gary Scanes from Old Bar gained a new perspective on life during his battle with cancer.
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“You revalue things. In some ways it improves your life because you value what is important and you don’t let the small things explode,” he said.
Four years after his son Jack was declared cancer free, Gary found a lump on his neck behind his right ear.
After initially discussing it with his GP he went to local physician to investigate.
“I went to see him, because of its location and because it was starting to get bigger and slightly inflamed.
He said, ‘Look, I think we need to remove this, and as part of removing it, we’ll do a biopsy.’
After surgery at Manning Base Hospital, the biopsy revealed that the lump was a squamous cell carcinoma – skin cancer.
More than 400,000 Australians a year are treated for skin cancers, with two out of three likely to be diagnosed by the age of 70.
Gary was immediately referred to Chris O’Brien Lifehouse cancer hospital in Sydney for specialist head and neck surgery.
“It was a shock. My wife and I had planned an extensive trip to Europe, in particular France, a couple of weeks after and to be perfectly honest my first though was, ‘Oh no, she was looking forward to that so much and now it’s not going to happen’,” said Gary.
Gary’s family had already been through cancer diagnosis and treatment once before: with son Jack Scanes now almost four years recovered from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. Jack had a stem cell transplant and extensive chemotherapy and radiation.
“Jack was a source of inspiration to me I terms of strength and resilience in dealing with the treatment protocols and looking to the future beyond recovery,” said Gary.
Gary had seen cancer surgeon Chris O’Brien on Australian Story on ABC TV so he knew of Professor O’Brien’s race to set up the not-for-profit comprehensive cancer hospital as he himself approached death due a brain tumour.
“I had some understanding of what a wonderful person Chris O’Brien was, and the Lifehouse was mentioned as part of his story and his legacy. I didn’t know of anybody who had been there at that stage,” said Gary.
The experience saw Gary gain a new view on life.
“I guess after something like this the first thing is the reflection around ‘I hope I’m going to be okay’. But then I think I moved onto ‘this is not all a bad thing’. There’s a silver lining here.
“I am starting to understand what I value. I live in a beautiful place, and I now appreciate walking on the beach every day. I appreciate the relationships I have with family and friends.
“I am simplifying a lot of things and I’m really enjoying that. There is that side of things, and it is about just valuing what I have around me.”
Gary had returned to work at TAFE but has since retired.