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Damien was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer in October 2019 at just 31-years-old
He noticed blood is his stool, but otherwise was feeling fit and healthy thanks to his personal training regime.
Due to regular and intense personal training sessions, Damien went to numerous GPs who put the bleeding down to haemorrhoids.
This went on for nine months.
“I was young and busy with work, so it seemed like more of an inconvenience than a priority,” says Damien. “I felt fit and healthy at the time, so I didn’t give it the attention it needed. When it didn’t get better with over-the-counter treatments, I was finally sent for a colonoscopy to find out what was going on. When they finished the colonoscopy, I was told it was cancer and I would be booked into a surgeon to have it cut out.”
The next day, Damien underwent scans to determine the extent of the cancer.
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“Following the scans, we met with the colorectal surgeon, and he informed us that there was cancer in the rectal area, which we knew, but that it was far worse than first thought as it had spread to my liver,” says Damien. “I was 31-years-old at the time and I was told not to plan for my 40th birthday and I was only a 50/50 chance to make it to 35. That was devastating to hear.”
That night, Damien proposed to his partner, Vanessa.
“When things go wrong in our lives, we have always tried to stay positive and turn our day around,” says Vanessa. “It certainly wasn’t how I thought I would be proposed to, but it really did turn our day around. It cemented that we were going to do everything we could to get through Damien’s diagnosis.”
In the days following Damien’s diagnosis, as they prepared for the gruelling treatment schedule ahead, the couple decided to freeze Damien’s sperm.
“We hadn’t talked about starting a family, but we realised it’s something we wanted to do,” says Vanessa. “The doctor in the (fertility clinic) moved heaven and earth for us to get the sperm frozen before Damien’s treatment started. Normally it takes a month to get an appointment but given our situation, things moved very quickly.”
Damien underwent 12 rounds of chemotherapy soon after his diagnosis, which he responded well to.
In April 2020 he underwent a gruelling 12-hour surgery to remove the cancer from his bowel and liver. In September 2020 cancer was again detected on his liver and shortly after he commenced chemotherapy at Icon Cancer Centre Chermside under medical oncologist, Dr Adam Stirling.
He has spent the past two years on chemotherapy to keep the cancer at bay.
The team at Icon Chermside has become a second family to Vanessa and I. They take really good care of me, and I feel like I’m in safe hands.
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