'I thought my body aches were signs of aging … then I was diagnosed with cancer'

“When you're down to not having a long time to teach your children things, I figure this is essentially the memory I am leaving behind.”

When Damien got out of bed with flu-like symptoms, he continued on with his day. 

At 43 years old and with three teenage kids in tow, he dismissed the aches and pains as a sign of him “getting old”. 

But the symptoms didn’t improve. In fact, they only got worse. So he decided to see a doctor. 

Advised to take a prostate-specific antigen test (PSA), he was tragically diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Now it had spread to the rest of his body, making the diagnosis terminal. 

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The father-of-three was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. Source: Instagram/@damienkamholtz

Cancer diagnosis turned Damien’s family's “world upside down”

Speaking to the Daily Mail, the Australian father confesses the news is “devastating”.

“It turned mine and my family's world upside down,” he said.

After months of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, he can only do a quarter of the things he used to be able to do.

“My motto is to do what I can while I can,” the 45-year-old said. “It's a funny sort of juggling act, where you try to remain positive and live in the now, but I'm preparing them for what is down the line.” 

Damien is a father of three kids, aged between 14 and 22. At the time of his diagnosis, his youngest son was 12 years old and shaved his head in solidarity with his father’s chemo treatment. 

“When you're down to not having a long time to teach your children things, I figure this is essentially the memory I am leaving behind,” he added. 

Looking back to the time before his shock diagnosis, he confessed he didn’t even know where his prostate was located. 

But he believed the cancer was “something for old people” and had a “very steep learning curve” once he heard the news. 

Now it’s his mission in life is to encourage other men to get themselves checked out, even if they’re under 50 years old. 

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The Australian dad is raising awareness for men to get their prostates checked. Source: Instagram/@damienkamholtz

Prostate cancer is not just “something for old people”

Damien moved to Noosa Hinterlands in 2020 with his family and has undergone endless radiation and chemotherapy. 

He recently began a new clinical trial for his prostate cancer but was placed in the ‘control group’, meaning he will not receive the experimental drugs. 

Instead, his cancer diagnosis will be compared to the patients who are taking the treatment. 

“It's already difficult to get into the trials, and then you have a 50/50 chance of even receiving the drug,” he told Daily Mail. 

“You sign a document at the start of every trial that basically says you might see an improvement, you might stay the same, or you could get worse.”

Originally published as 'I thought my body aches were signs of aging … then I was diagnosed with cancer'