Matt’s Cancer Fight

I never thought we would have to do this and it is with great sadness cancer has affected our lives once again!
in February 2019, Matt my brother, who grew up in the Redhead Community moved home after 10 years living in Dorrigo to be with his family and new partner Mel. Since about June last year, Matt had not been feeling great, suffering from a lot of fatigue and feeling as though he had no ‘life force’. Matt simply put his fatigue down to a stressful past 6 months, having relocated his life, starting a new job, Mum having breast cancer treatment, and stepdad having a near fatal heart attack.
on September 16th 2019, Matt woke up feeling unwell and had a sore lump on the right side of his neck. His partner Mel had a busy day ahead, as it was the launch day for Charlie’s Run 4 Kids (the local charity named in honour of Mel’s daughter Charlie, who sadly passed away from cancer in 2015) and Matt had offered to help Mel with organisation for the day, however by mid afternoon Matt was so unwell he had to take himself to hospital. Discharged with a suspected infection and prescribed antibiotics, Matt’s swollen neck continued to increase in size and pain over the next 2 days, requiring admission to the Head and Neck ward at John Hunter Hospital. Matt had a suspected infected cyst in his neck, requiring steroids and further antibiotic therapy to settle this down. 

In the following months, leading up to Christmas, Matt had ongoing investigations, including scans
and 2 biopsies, which came back inconclusive in confirming that the lesion in Matt’s neck was a cyst.

Concerned by not having a firm diagnosis, the Head and Neck surgeon decided it best to remove the
lesion in Matts neck and perform a biopsy to obtain a diagnosis. Matt had this surgery on Tuesday 14th January 2020 and was diagnosed with a head and neck cancer 1 week later. The “cyst” in Matt’s neck was actually a lymph node full of cancer which had metastasised from the primary tumour, which at this point they could not find. Three days later
Matt had a full body PET scan with the aim of locating his primary tumour and to ensure that the cancer had not spread to distant parts of his body. Thankfully the PET scan showed no distant metastasis but did highlight the likely primary tumour at the base of his tongue, which has since been confirmed with a tongue biopsy.

Matt has always lived healthy, never smoked and isa minimal drinker, has now been diagnosed with stage 2 locally advanced Adenosquarmous cancer of the tongue. A rare type of cancer in a man his age.

Matt and our faces and intense treatment protocol, including seven weeks of daily radiation to his throat/neck area with chemotherapy at the same time. Matt will lose his ability to swallow and taste during his treatment, so surgery to insert a feeding tube into his stomach has also been planned.

Matt is currently only working casually after relocating back to Redhead last year and has already needed quite a bit of time off work due to illness and medical investigations leading up to his diagnosis. While Matt might be able to work short days for some of the time in the first few weeks of treatment, it is expected he will require require up to 4 months off work, with a gradual return during his recovery.

We are hoping that you might help support Matt during his cancer fight, raising funds to help take away the financial pressure of treatment costs in paying bills or receiving limited or no income income. Every donation will help and will be received with the greatestof thanks.