THE words “prostate” and “cancer” are the last words a man wants to hear in the same sentence, but Eurobodalla Mayor Lindsay Brown had no choice but to listen late last year.
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As Kerrie O’Connor’s story relates, the mayor got the diagnosis late last year and had the necessary surgery for it in January.
In between these two events he lost a close friend, arriving at his Albury home too late to say goodbye.
I’m only 43 and I have lost five close friends who were around my age so I can imagine Lindsay was feeling incredibly alone at the time, despite him having a loving family.
This combined with his diagnosis meant that people in the Eurobodalla grumbling “Where’s the mayor, it’s just unfair” were the least of his problems.
It has been a rough few months for him, but the surgery was a success, and now he is urging others who could be in line for prostate cancer, to speak out, and get checked.
Whether you are talking about cancer such as this, or mental illness, you must speak out and get help, or perish – it is that simple.
Countless men have allowed their pride and a false sense of selfless heroism stop them from getting checked and getting help, and the result has been that those they sought to protect with inaction and silence then had to live without them.
Lindsay wants to make his survival and recovery count and is encouraging men to get tested.
He also knows that his survival and recovery means he can now continue to celebrate his Rabbitohs’ victories in the NRL grand final, Auckland Nines and World Club Challenge.
Like a rabbit, he has defeated a disease.
I recently had a blood test, something that my family and work colleagues had been urging me to do for a long time. I had long thought that if I dropped dead, well, then I dropped dead, and therefore didn’t bother.
I then realised I had a family who needed me, and that my life therefore didn’t just belong to me, so I had to do it for them.
Your life belongs to your loved ones, just as much as it belongs to you, so whether you are threatened by a physical or mental illness, reach out, and get help.
Josh Gidney (male)