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Tim Babbage was on a fishing trip with the boys when he got what looked like a little indigestion.
The 40-year-old builder doesn’t usually drink or eat unhealthy foods, so he thought the short vacation away from home had upset him.
Three weeks later, he was diagnosed with a rare and deadly cancer after tests showed “a tumor the size of a house brick” in his intestine.
The diagnosis left Tim floored.
He was put on the “cancer train” and enrolled in the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse. one of Australia’s leading cancer hospitals. a few days after his diagnosis.
“It all happened so fast that I couldn’t believe it. I never would have thought of cancer. And for it to be so big, I’m left speechless,” he explained.
Tim Babbage pictured with his daughter Eloise, five, and his wife Gillian
The family feels crushed by his unexpected diagnosis of cancer.
His wife, Gillian Campbell, had to try to figure out “what’s next.”
She is pregnant with the couple’s second child and knew at 41 that giving birth and raising a newborn as well as arguing with their five-year-old Eloise would be difficult.
“Now I have to figure out how to do this without Tim’s help, and how to support him during chemotherapy as well.”
“It’s one of those things where you think it could never happen to us.”
The couple are in their prime after working hard for years on tough corporate assignments.
“Tim has just made a career change to become a builder, he’s halfway through renovating our house and we’re about to start our family,” she said.
“These years are meant to be dream years.”
In fact, Tim’s medical emergencies or inability to work were so far off the couple’s radar that they had planned for him to be the sole breadwinner for a year.
Tim, left, had recently changed careers and said he felt healthier than ever because he was always outdoors and exercising.
The family was in their prime when the disease was discovered: Gillian was pregnant with their second child.
“I am taking unpaid maternity leave, we knew things would be tighter but now I feel like it will be impossible. I looked around, but since we had good jobs and worked hard, we don’t seem to qualify for help,” she said.
“I’m so stressed about how we’re going to make ends meet, pay the mortgage and support the kids.
“And devastated that this happened to him, to our family.”
Tim is “a tough guy” in every way, but he’s always taken his health seriously.
“At first I thought it was indigestion, but it gradually got worse.”
“The day before I arrived at the hospital, I ate two spoonfuls of casserole and I was full. Gillian asked me what I ate on the way home, but I just couldn’t eat.
“I am a bricklayer, I was hungry but there was no room,” he said.
Gillian is pregnant with their second child – and terrified of the future
The next day, his stomach hurt so badly that he decided to go to the doctor.
“Gillian said it must have been bad for me to take the day off, it took a lot to get me down.” he said.
When he got to the doctor, they had a lot of guesses, all pointing to gallstones, but they offered him the option of having scans, out of his own pocket.
“I think it’s important for people to know they can do this. And if I paid $100, that’s less than I would have lost by skipping a day of work.
“And if I hadn’t paid it, they wouldn’t have found the cancer then.”
During the analysis, he was told to go straight to the emergency room, where, to his surprise, they drove him directly.
This cancer is a fast-growing, hard-to-treat, and rare type of sarcoma.
“It grows in fatty tissue and around organs, so it can grow for a while before you experience symptoms,” he said.
The diagnosis came before the June long weekend and ten days later Tim started chemotherapy.
The stage 4 diagnosis shook the family. But Tim refuses to let cancer win.
“They asked me if I was happy to do high-level chemo. It hits you harder, but it’s the strongest dose and it’s more likely to kill him.”
The plan after chemotherapy should be considered once the team understands how the cancer responded to the treatment.
“We hope the treatments will reduce it enough to eliminate it,” he said.
Gill and Tim told their daughter that “dad has a stomach ache” to protect her from the heartbreaking truth.
“We said the doctors were helping, that dad had his hair cut in the hospital,” Gill told FEMAIL.
“She goes to daycare as usual. Dad is in the hospital for a week then back for three weeks, we just don’t want her to be too scared for him.
Gillian never asked for help, but a friend insisted that she start a Go Fund me to raise money to relieve her financial difficulties.
And finally, she gave in.
She wishes others faced with a frightening medical diagnosis would do the same.
“Gather your village. It took me weeks to accept help.
“People want to help you, they want to babysit, fill your freezer, do whatever they can, so take it,” she said.
Tim hopes for a speedy recovery so he can return to work. He worries that he won’t be able to provide enough for his wife while she recovers from the birth of their second baby.
The family wants to raise awareness of the disease
He says he is already satisfied that the amount has been reduced.
“I can eat now and sleep on this side, which the doctors say is a good sign.”
At the moment, he hopes to be healthy by January.
Doctors don’t yet know much about these cancers, but say genetic factors and exposure to chemicals can increase the risk.
THE Mayo Clinic explained that there are 70 types of sarcomas that all involve soft tissue – and all of them are extremely rare. The problem is that everyone acts differently, which makes survivability stats grim.
Healthy Aussie tradie reveals deadly rare cancer symptom he nearly missed