‘They said I was dead in a year’: Dad of Block twins diagnosed with incredibly rare asbestos cancer

For years doctors could not understand what was causing Kevin Packham’s acute abdominal pain, and when it was finally diagnosed it shocked both the doctor and the patient.

After years of debilitating pain, misdiagnosis and wrong medication, Kevin Packham was finally told what the problem was – a very rare and ­aggressive asbestos cancer.

The father of reality TV twins Luke and Josh was told to put his affairs in order because he had just a year left.

That was in 2020 and Mr Packham is still fighting – to stay with his beloved family and also to help others tackling this hideous disease.

It is not possible to make it worse but, to the best of his knowledge, the 63-year-old was never exposed to asbestos.

“It was towards the end of 2017 and I started getting acute pains in the stomach, to the point where I ended up in hospital for two or three days,” the retired real estate agent told The Sunday Telegraph.

“Just to put that into perspective – Kevin’s got a very, very high pain threshold,” interrupted Jo.

Luke, Josh, Kevin Packham

Mr Packham was told he had Crohn’s disease but when his health didn’t improve doctors were baffled, with tests and scans inconclusive.

“The gastroenterologist wanted to do a laparoscopy because Kevin had so many colonoscopies we had lost count – but it was Covid and the laparoscopy was pushed back to July because it wasn’t deemed emergency surgery.”

It revealed he had peritoneal mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer most people have never heard of – rare because the asbestos has to be ingested, not just breathed in.

Mr Packham can only think it must have happened in one of the thousands of houses he visited in 30 years of being a real estate agent.

“The gastroenterologist said: ‘Peritoneal mesothelioma is the last thing that I would have thought’,” Jo said.

Kevin Packham was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive asbestos cancer

“I think the initial shock was being told that, unless Kevin qualified for radical surgery, he wouldn’t see the next 12 months and to get our affairs in order. That feeling of hang on – my husband’s got a gun to his head right now.

“I remember all Kevin could say was: ‘I can’t leave you and the kids, I can’t’.

“And we had to sit down with our three adult children and tell them … and I’ll never forget that.”

Kevin, Josh (son), Luke (son), Danielle (daughter), Gabrielle and Florence (grandkids), James (son-in-law), Jo (wife)

Only two surgeons in Sydney perform the “radical” 10-hour operation Kevin needed, and thankfully qualified for. At stage three, his cancer was found to be more advanced than first thought when he was opened up, but the surgeon successfully removed his peritoneum, spleen, two bowel sections, diaphragm and tumours in his liver. He spent 28 days in hospital and lost 12 kilos. But his tight-knit family kept him fighting.

“It’s pretty tough – you have to be very mentally strong going in and physically fit because it’s … a journey inside,” he said. “There were some dark days in hospital – but I was prepared for it.

“So that was in 2021 and I came out and had chemo after the operation and that’s when the boys went on The Block.”

Kevin and Jo Packham

He sees his oncologist and surgeon every six months, with regular CT scans and, while a terminal diagnosis is a constant “black cloud over their shoulders”, he is well.

The couple are determined to make the most of each moment. He loves being a granddad. Their daughter, who has two children and one the way, lives five doors down from her parents at Warriewood on the Northern Beaches.

Luke and Josh recently moved to Sutherland Shire to run the successful synthetic grass business they started with their $530,000 Block winnings.

“The boys are living together and Luke is married and they have a little girl who is 18 months,” he said.

“It was tough on all of us for them to move away but we go down on Sundays and stay with them Sunday night and look after our granddaughter all day Monday, which is great.”

He says he feels like he’s on borrowed time – but it’s time he’s determined to make the most of.

“This is like being given a second life, another chance,” he said.

“It gives you a totally different perspective on life – because you appreciate things a lot more.”

November is Asbestos Awareness Month and, on Wednesday, the Biaggio Signorelli Foundation will host its 15th annual tribute gala dinner for the cause.

The Packhams will be there, hoping to help raise $1 million to help eradicate asbestos cancer and form a national Mesothelioma Research Network.

That research will help save people like Kevin. The night also honours Biaggio Signorelli, the founder of Doltone House, who was the driving force behind the Foundation, and died just nine months after his own diagnosis.

To donate visit bsf.org.au