By Dongyun Kwon
Healesville residents will conduct a challenge to fundraise for the Cancer Council at the RACV Healesville Country Club on Friday 8 December.
The challenge is for two cancer survivors Glenn Newbery and Paul Hodgson to complete four rounds of golf, which is 72 holes in total, in one day.
Mr Newbery said he and his friend wanted to contribute back to the people who are struggling with cancers.
“Both of us play golf and we thought this would be a great way to raise awareness of what we’ve been through and to raise money for the Cancer Council,” he said.
It is a part of a series of challenges ‘The Longest Day’ organised by the Cancer Council to fundraise for them to continue their cancer research, prevention and support.
People can set up any amount of donation for the challenge and once two challengers complete it, the people will donate the amount they pledged.
According to the Cancer Council, it’s estimated that 151,000 Australians were diagnosed with cancer in 2021 which is over 400 per day and almost 1 in 2 Australians will be diagnosed with cancer by the age of 85.
Both Mr Newbery and Mr Hodgson suffered from a primary tumour on the tonsil for the last two years.
Mr Newbery said his case reminded the importance of a quick response.
“I first noticed it when I was shaving in October 2020. I felt hungover when I hadn’t been drinking. The tumour presented as a small lump on one side of my neck,” he said.
“It was the size of a pea. It grew really quickly and it became six centimetres when I had it removed at the end of January 2021.
“If something presents like that [a small lump of tumour], you’ve got to go and see it straight away because it grows so quickly.”
Mr Newbery had two bouts of operations to cure his cancer.
They were a neck dissection and a robot operation through which a lot of the flesh from his throat was removed to get rid of the primary tumour.
It was a four-month recovery treatment without any chemo or radiation.
“I was really lucky that a particular lymph node, where the cancer presented on my neck, held all the cancer in it,” Mr Newbery said.
“I had lots of lymph nodes removed up and down on my right side to check if the cancer had spread, but it hadn’t spread past that lymph node because I had removed it quickly.
“I chose the route of pure operations and rest. Paul chose to go down the chemotherapy and radiation route. Both different treatments went successfully.”
Anyone, interested in supporting the challenge, can pledge a donation on the Cancer Council’s website at www.longestday.org.au/fundraisers/paulandglenn.
