Support Nathan's Lung Cancer Journey

Nathan's cancer journey began in 2019, with a small lump on his leg which grew significantly before treatment began. It quickly metastasized to the lung. Despite undergoing treatment for the last 4 years, the cancer is growing, and the prognosis is unkown. Based on the location in the lung it is inoperable.

As Nathan is living in Gladstone where there is limited care available for his condition, he has to travel to a better-equipped Brisbane hospital for treatment, tests, and appointments that can't be done at a closer hospital or over the phone. While travel costs and accommodation are usually covered, attending appointments and undergoing various rounds of treatment and testing quickly ate up his work leave allowances. We are still in a cost of living crisis and bills pile up fast. To continue receiving treatment and attending appointments Nathan has to take unpaid leave from work while still paying rent and other bills. Any financial help would be greatly appreciated and significantly reduce the strain during an already difficult time, allowing him to focus on his health and treatment.

Aside from his diagnosis, Nathan is a beautiful human being with a heart of gold who has always given 100% of himself to others. He is kind, generous, compassionate, thoughtful, forgiving, and never runs out of love and positivity to give. He has the biggest heart of anyone I've ever met and is always making others laugh. Although he still manages to have a laugh and joke around (as you see in the goofy photos), these are truly dark days. Seeing him hurt and struggling is soul-crushing. In roughly 15 years of knowing him, I've only ever seen him show love and respect for others and put everyone else before himself. Life isn't fair.

"In February 2019 I noticed a small golfball size lump on my right leg. I didn't think much of it, as it got bigger, as the year progressed on, I chalked it up to being muscle gains as I was working out regularly.

Around August-September my GP sent me for an ultrasound, which suggested the lump was a soft tissue schwannoma. Schwannoma tumors are not usually cancerous. After these results, I continued on my fitness journey and was determined to smash out 2 fitness goals.

I hit those goals, then got a call from my GP requesting another scan. This time, the results suggested the lump was lymphoma. It's now early November, and the lump on my leg has grown dramatically to the size of a navel orange. By this time I get a call from the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) in Brisbane asking me to come down for a biopsy. The Doctor who conducted the biopsy told me it was minuscule blood vessels all in one. So, after that I went about my life for the next few weeks, celebrating my Dad's 60th birthday.

A few days later I got another call from the PAH asking me to come down and discuss the actual results of the biopsy. Then this is when my life changed forever. To my disbelief and instant denial, I was told it was a rare form of CANCER. It was malignant and had also spread to my left lung. I was in complete shock. My oncologist suggested that we get the ball rolling straight away. I was booked in for surgery to get a Portacath inserted to make intraveinous treatment easier, go to the fertility clinic to preserve sperm as treatment would make me infertile, and attend Chemotherapy education.

It's now December 10, 2019, and it's the first day of chemo. I'd continue with this treatment until March 2020.

March 2020 I had surgery to remove the tumour from my leg. The following morning, the doctors made their rounds and told me that my leg was cleared of all margins.

May 2020 I started radium treatment for my leg through Genesis Care in Rockhampton for 5 weeks. Later that year, I had 5 days of radium for my lung. That helped a little.

In 2021 my oncologist prescribed chemo tablets. They made my hair turn white, and I looked like Santa lol.

Fast forward to 2023, chemo stopped working. A CT scan in January showed that the cancer's activity on my lung was bigger. So since February this year, I've been having more chemo. This time it didn't work.

In August this year, I started a different kind of chemo. It didn't work either.

So, now the treatment is more radium, and potentially another form of chemo."

-Nathan