When Paige Reale-Barry heard her father had been diagnosed with cancer, she remembered the pain of 2008, when she lost her grandfather in the same way.
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As her dad continues to recover, Ms Reale-Barry will take part in the Relay for Life on October 22 and 23.
“My grandfather died in 2008 from pancreatic cancer, which is very aggressive,” she said.
“He didn’t know he had it until it was very late, and after three months he was gone.
“He’s very stubborn and refused to go get help – him being an Italian man – and we all remember him for that reason and his personality.”
Ms Reale-Barry was again dealing with the news cancer had hit her family six months ago, when her father was diagnosed.
“He had a big lump on his neck, and being not one to go to the doctor at all, thought it was nothing,” she said.
“Mum, being a nurse, pushed him to go to the doctor and they found out he had a swollen lymph node and throat cancer on the back of his tongue, on his neck, and it spread.
“They had to take a major chunk out of the back of his tongue, bits out of his neck and then he had to go through radiation therapy for eight weeks in Adelaide.
“So far he’s home – he can only eat through a tube in his stomach, but we’re playing it by ear and we’re still very on edge at the moment.”
Ms Reale-Barry hoped Relay for Life would encourage other members in the community to keep cancer on their radar.
“It’s been hard for all of us – cancer is not specific to any sex, age, gender, it could be anybody,” she said.
“It hit home for Mum more than anything, because she looked after Nonno, and it being her father and then her husband, it was hard.
“People need to get check-ups to get on top of things before it’s too late.”
Throughout the last six months, colleagues have rallied around Ms Reale-Barry, including Belynda Ekman – who is walking beside her at the relay later this month.
Ms Ekman said as well as offering support, she was remembering her father.
“I think pretty much everyone in the team had someone they were remembering on the day,” she said.
“We got a few people from work together last year and this year friends and family have also joined.
“We raised close to $4000 last year and we’re already up there now.”
Cancer Council NSW Albury community relations co-ordinator Emma Ryall said so far on the Border, 121 teams had joined in raising just under $180,000 out of a $375,000 goal.
“We can’t thank the Border community enough for their support,” she said.
To register, go to relayforlife.org.au/border.
