Help Hoani fight his battle with Cancer

We’re channelling Hoani’s strength to help him through his toughest battle and fight cancer!

Thank you for coming to our GoFundMe page, where we are calling on our community to help Hoani fight his battle with Cancer.

We appreciate your well-wishes, messages of hope, and offers of help. By collectively channelling Hoani’s positivity and strength, we can all help the Barker family fight this battle that lies ahead.

Because of the seriousness and urgency of Hoani’s disease, we have created this page in an effort to rally behind the Barkers. I think we can all agree, Hoani’s refusal to yield to any nemesis is evident in his posting to friends and loved ones on Social Media – he radiates optimism for us all to be able to better cope with this horrid news. He plans to tackle this purposefully with utter determination, like any other mountain or marathon he has taken on. However, we are calling upon his village, to help him overcome this challenge together.

The treatment for this type of cancer; Pseudomyxoma Peritonei (PMP) is very aggressive and invasive. Hoani’s description was accurate – yet his readiness, unwavering. If you wish to know more about this rare disease, please click on the links we have included.

Within the next 4 weeks, Hoani will undergo a procedure called Cytoreductive Surgery and Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC). It’s the ‘mother of all operations’, basically an open abdominal surgery where they cut from sternum to pelvis, remove all visible disease, any compromised organs, and finish by pumping the cavity with heated chemotherapy (a 10–12-hour procedure). Hoani will be in hospital for several weeks following the procedure, followed by 6-12 months of slow recovery. Recovery will be contingent upon what is found during the surgery, and how far the cancer has spread.

It's times like this where we often feel helpless. I find myself drawing strength and resilience from Hoani’s attitude to this whole situation. I find it difficult to comprehend that such a caring, selfless, fit, and healthy person can be faced with such an awful disease and treatment. Cancer certainly does not discriminate. It is quick, covert, and ruthless. To this day, Hoani has not uttered a word of self-pity, or inequity, or anger. He has shielded his girls from any raw emotions. His comments and mindset have been nothing short of inspirational.

What we can do now is rally together to try and make sure Hoani can just focus on fighting this battle and getting better. We all know that Hoani is the first person to offer help when someone needs it – his empathy is boundless. I have personally witnessed this, from the first instance upon meeting him, when he fell in love with my sister in Grade 10 at high school. Before planning his own life, he ventured out to Central Queensland with a bunch of like-minded mates. Between gigging, they worked on restoring commission housing and teaching their love and passion of music to Indigenous children in the local community, he was away from loved ones for months. Since their union 20 years ago Courtney and Hoani have been inseparable – setting goals, working hard, creating a family, buying a home….. and looking forward to the joy of witnessing their beautiful girls achieve milestones.

It will be months before Hoani can return to work at full capacity. It will be several weeks while Courtney is his carer. As we all know, the bills mount rapidly while surgery, ongoing treatment, mortgages, school fees etc., won't stop… we can relieve some of the mental and emotional strain by helping meet those costs and commitments.

So, I’m asking everyone to please help me take this burden away from the Barker family and let’s fight the fight for them where we can.

This GoFundMe has been set up to raise money to cover

Hoani, like so many other young, healthy men – did not foresee the urgency to make early decisions about life insurance, wills, and income protection insurance levels.

To get everyone motivated, Bennett and I are committing to channelling our “inner Hoani” by embarking on a “marathon” journey! For every $25 we raise, we pledge together to run, ride, or row 1 kilometre over the next 6 months.

We will be using this page to provide everyone with regular updates on Hoani's treatment. Whilst Courtney and Hoani will endeavour to respond to messages and calls over the coming months as they grapple with surgeries, treatments, meetings with specialists, and recovery - it may take a little bit of time to reply. If you have any questions, concerns, or messages of support you'd like us to pass on, please feel free to contact either myself (Hannah) or Liz in the first instance.

Much love, and thank you for your support.

Hannah and Bennett xxx