Support our sister as she navigates widowhood a 2nd time....

UPDATE*

It is with great sadness that I notify you of the passing of our beautiful friend and Brooke's lovely man Tone yesterday, the 10th February 2025.

Tone was finally bought home from hospital on Wednesday of last week after fighting so hard to get well enough to even be considered for chemo, and they both hoped that being home would give him the strength he needed to do so.

It was not to be - although Tone fought as hard as he could, he heartbreakingly passed away with his beloved Brooke and their two Puppy's by his side.

Brooke is absolutely broken, and will update you when she can. She is so grateful for all of your support.

Any donations from here on in will go towards the cremation/memorial and allowing Brooke some time off work to mourn her beautiful man and still be able to pay the mortgage.

It is greatly appreciated.

Emma.

Hey Grief Community -

This one is very close to mine and Carolyn's hearts as it is a request for help for one of our favourite humans that has sadly already been a part of our grief community for 2 years already.

After devoting her time to supporting her beautiful husband for many years who was suffering from liver disease, Matt passed away after complications following a liver transplant in 2021.

Brooke was struggling greatly with her grief a couple of years ago when her friend suggested chatting on the phone with her brother Tone (a Trucker who was working in Western Australia at the time and driving mostly at night), so when Tone was driving and Brooke was struggling with the long, lonely nights, they would talk for hours. Tone would keep her entertained with his extensive stories and very colourful language!

A little while later when Tone's mate from Vic needed a driver in Gippsland, he moved to Vic and once Brooke and Tone met in person, the rest (as they say) is history.

Tone has been unbelievably supportive towards Brooke on her grief journey, so as you can imagine, when this latest news surfaced, it has devastated them both.

Tone was washing their staffy Duke when Duke tried to leap out of his arms, he stretched his arm out and fell against the wall (pressing his elbow into his side). This became a niggling pain that he didn't think much of at the time, but then a few months later he went to get out of bed and heard a pop (which was actually a second rib breaking) so off to the doctors they went.

The doc wasn't so sure that either of those things should be enough of an impact to break a rib, let alone two, so they were sent off to the same hospital that Brooke and Matt had spent a large part of his illness journey.

After a pelvic abdomen CT scan and a very long 9 hour wait in the ED, they were called into a small room with a tiny single bed in it, followed by multiple doctors and nurses.

Brooke had seen the look that they had on their faces before - the fractures were in fact cancer in the bones - and there was also a mass in Tone's lung.

The news came through to them just after midnight on the 12th October, on Tone's eldest daughter's birthday.

Many procedures, sleepless nights and no doubt some post traumatic stress later on the 21st October it was discovered that there is cancer in the lymph nodes, left humerus, collar bone, the thoracic spine T12 and L2 and a small spot in the stomach lining.

It's an incurable high grade malignancy that they believe started as a non small cell lung cancer that has since spread.

They also didn't get enough of a sample during the initial bronchoscopy and EBUS, to determine the exact type of non small cell cancer so they will need to do a further biopsy prior to hitting it with radiation as this treatment can destroy the site.

After only recently starting a new job, Tone has no paid leave and Brooke only just got put on full time (finally), so hasn't accrued any yet (even though they've been amazing with her already needing to take off lots of time for appointments among other things to support Tone).

Brooke has already sold her beloved Harley Davidson to help cover the mortgage, bills, medical expenses etc., but it's only going to hold for so long.

They saw the oncologist last Friday who can treat the spots in the bones to help alleviate some of the pain, but they also said that this is incurable - and without treatment urgently, Tone will have weeks to months left.

We are asking our community to please share even the smallest amount (and if you don't have the funds - please just share the link), because Brooke and Tone are beyond exhausted right now.

The stress of not having money to access proper medical treatment, decent pain relief, or to cover the mortgage and fill the fridge with healthy food should not be the most stressful thing on their minds right now.

Spending time with each other and Tone's closest family and friends is clearly the most important thing - something that we know all too well.

Thanking you in advance,

Emma and Carolyn.