Andrew’s story

Andrew Miller and his family relish their regular camping holidays, because they know all too well just how valuable their time together is.

“Cancer doesn’t care if you’re too busy to be sick. It doesn’t care how many people are depending on you at work, or whether you have a family to provide for.”

Andrew had been suffering a range of digestive issues for almost two years, however he’d struggled to find time to investigate. That all changed in June 2019 when he found himself barely able to eat and rapidly losing weight.

It led to the discovery of a tumour so large it had almost completely blocked his bowel, alongside four tumours in his liver. Andrew was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer at just 38 years old.

Surgery took care of the bowel tumour, but there was little time to focus on recovery—Andrew had to start chemotherapy to shrink the liver tumours ahead of several more surgeries.

By February 2020, Andrew was in remission, but within six months there was another liver tumour—this time inoperable—prompting 18 months of chemo, radiation, and more chemo.

Getting the all-clear has given Andrew an even greater appreciation of the care they received with Mater.

“We live at Springfield and the team went above and beyond to arrange treatments in the Mater Hospital Springfield, which made the experience so much more manageable.”

With your support in buying tickets in Cars for Cancer, Mater can continue to provide hope and healing to patients like Andrew and their families.