We are raising funds for our colleague Marc Webb. Marc is an exceptional person who has the kindest heart and is always ready to jump in and help anyone with a need. Now it is his turn to be helped.

On Christmas Day while we were enjoying time with our family, eating a feast, playing silly games and popping bonbons Marc was at the airport flying to the Philippines. Marc's father, Alan Webb, had a serious fall and needed urgent medical care. Alan has been residing in a remote area 8 hours from Manilla.

The ‘neck’ of Alan’s right hip had a severe and complete fracture which had completely shattered and separated from the right side of his pelvis. This had stopped adequate blood supply reaching his entire right leg. An implant has been inserted and additionally an implant including a bolt and screw have been used to secure the hip back to the pelvis.

He is now undertaking daily rehabilitation and exercises at the hospital with the use of a walker to help Alan stand and sit and learn to use the equipment to position himself safely from a sitting or lying down position and into a wheelchair. He is unable to walk and will not be able to walk, with the exception of a few small steps which are carefully controlled and monitored.

It is expected to be a gradual process of slowly increasing the excercises and steps dependent on his individual progress as the bone hopefully regrows and strengthens enough to allow him to slowly increase pressure on his right leg to support additional weight on that side.

This recovery will take many weeks to months with the ultimate goal for Alan to be able to safely increase the load on his right leg to the point he won’t need to rely on a wheelchair for mobility and just use the walker (which is currently really just a ‘stander’). He will likely never be able to walk again without the use of a walker or at the very best a walking stick.

Should this procedure fail, then the next and last option will be a full hip replacement, although fingers crossed it doesn’t come to that.

In addition to this, while in the hospital they discovered a very suspicious looking lesion on Alan's chest. It was examined by a dermatologist at the hospital and confirmed as being a malignant basal cell carcinoma - cancer. Given the length of time, it has been left untreated and that it looks really nasty it needs to be removed ASAP and there is a high risk it may have spread to other parts of his body.

In any event, any potential future complications or surgery requirements will be performed in Australia, once we get him back home.

Marc is currently paying a ‘watcher’ (carer) to spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week with Alan as the Philippine medical / hospital system requires that a family member (or otherwise) remain with an inpatient at all times. It’s simply non negotiable. Marc is not able to do this given the many matters he needs to organise in a country where nothing happens quickly and every single process is very complicated.

Sadly, Alan has had to accept that he will never be returning to his home back in Baler, Aurora Provence. It’s just simply not an option. Marc is making arrangements to head there to collect only the most important and necessary possessions with Alan remaining in Manila. Everything else will be left behind.

When Alan is cleared for travel, Marc will collect him from the hospital in Manila, straight to the airport and onto a direct Qantas flight home to Brisbane.

Marc can’t wait to get him home to Australia. We are so lucky in Australia to have the universal medical care system we have.

Marc has funded his father's surgery, all his medical expenses and now is funding his physiotherapy and rehabilitation.

This is extremely costly, and Marc is reluctantly accepting that he needs financial assistance.

If you are able to assist, please donate to this very worthy cause so we can bring both Alan and Marc home.

Your help is greatly appreciated by Marc and his family.