Lake Cargelligo Airport

Transcription

(Samantha Donovan): Now to the condition they call Australia's cancer: melanoma. Despite the fact prevention is simply a matter of avoiding too much time in the sun without protection, melanoma remains third most common form of cancer, with 11 thousand cases diagnosed every year. If you've watched TV or been to a movie on the eastern seaboard this summer you be familiar with the story of Wes Bonny. (Stephanie Smail): Wes Bonny grew up on a sheep and wheat farm near Ardlethan in south western New South Wales. Vaughan Bonny is one of his older brothers. (Vaughan Bonny): It was very much an outdoors lifestyle. We were always involved in the running of the farm, helping dad out, or hindering him, as it were. But yeah we certainly grew up in a very outdoors type of environment. (Stephanie Smail): Vaughan Bonny says his brother was smart and ambitious. He was named dux of his high school, then moved to Canberra to study IT and commerce. Wes Bonny was 23 years old when he was diagnosed with melanoma. Vaughan Bonny remembers his brother telling him on the phone. (Vaughan Bonny) I remember it quite vividly. I was just about to buy a new car and he called me up and said, "I think I've got cancer. They think I've got cancer, I'm not sure, but it should be right though." And that was the conversation. And I thought, that's when I said, "You just get it cut out, don't you?" He said "Yeah, pretty sure that's what'll happen." And then, "What are you doing on Saturday? Catch up for a coffee?" (Wes Bonny's Parents): Wes was no different to any other Australian young man. He played his cricket, his water skiing, plus his down at the beach. Loved the beaches. (Wes Bonny's Friend 1): Like anyone there's times when you forget to wear sunscreen, but he'd never go to the beach intending to get a tan. (Wes Bonny's Brother): I saw getting a bit of sun in inverted commas "as a good thing". You know, i thought that was healthy. (Wes Bonny's Friend 1): When Wes was 23, he found a mole on his neck which turned out to be melanoma. That was cut out but the melanoma spread through his blood stream. (Wes Bonny's Friend 2): I just thought "get it cut out you'd be fine". I see that many ad campaigns about skin cancer and melanoma and you sorta take notice thinking its never going to happen to you. (Wes Bonny's brother): 7 days before my wedding, they found a lump on his brain and after that, you know, it was all over. Getting a tan at the risk of getting melanoma, just, you know, it doesn't really make sense to me now, after seeing Wes and you know, just how, how tough he had it in the last few months of his life before he passed away. He tried to cover up the best he could, evidently not good enough.