Bonbeach woman takes lead in incredible 200km tribute to late husband
Bonbeach man Campbell Jordan never smoked and had excellent respiratory health — but last year an aggressive form of lung cancer claimed his life. Now, his wife will undertake a mammoth task in a bid to remove the smoker label attached to the disease.
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A Bonbeach mum who lost her husband of four decades to an aggressive lung cancer says taking to the footpath helped her overcome unimaginable grief.
Retired nurse Deb Jordan, 63, is leading a charge this March as she embarks on a 200km walking tribute to Campbell Jordan who died from lung cancer last year.
Ms Jordan is on a mission to shift the stigma around lung cancer and said her husband never drank, smoked or ate red meat and had excellent respiratory health as a long distance swimmer.
The parents of two, who grew up in the southeastern suburbs, fell head over heels after meeting as teenagers at a debutante ball at the Chelsea Heights community hall in the early ‘70s.
“Cam developed a dry cough in late 2017 but a chest x-ray showed up with nothing,” Ms Jordan told the Leader.
“We went back for a CAT scan in February 2018 and after that he was diagnosed with a rare, stage-four lung cancer that had already spread to all of his bones. It was terminal.”
Mr Jordan started targeted therapy with an oncologist to buy time but he passed away in his sleep one year later.
She said the therapy side effects were hideous and impacted terribly on his life.
And she said her husband stopped telling people he had lung cancer because it was too traumatic explaining why a non-smoker had the disease.
Campbell, she said, had a genetic mutation, “a rogue cell that went off on its own”.
Ms Jordan found her husband passed in their bed and still feels a lot of trauma from that day.
Just six months before Mr Jordan’s death, the Bonbeach Life Saving Club rooms were named in his honour following his years of voluntary work, including helping roll out the club’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) program for swimmers of all backgrounds.
He and Ms Jordan are life members of the club.
“The part he played in the life saving club is very integral as to why I’m doing the Cancer Council’s March Charge … I don’t think I truly knew the impact he had on the club until he passed,” she said.
“My body was getting anxious and agitated (after Campbell died) and I couldn’t sit still … the need to walk overcame everything I was experiencing at the time and I found that really bizarre.
“As soon as I got moving the shock subsided.”
Ms Jordan, who grew up in Edithvale, has been hitting the pavement and sand at Bonbeach, along the Patterson River walking trail and at Bicentennial Park in Chelsea.
She has shed 20kg of fat and is on track to smash her 200 kilometre goal this month before preparing for the Point to Pinnacle half marathon in Hobart in November.
“I’d never done exercise in my life so for me to take on this challenge was quite significant … I’m using this month as really good training to prep myself,” she said.
“I’ve been listening to a lot of Taylor Swift who I have been loving at the moment … sometimes I cry to her songs and sometimes I smile.”
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Ms Jordan said she will “keep walking” and continue to break down the barrier of the smoker-label surrounding lung cancer diagnosis, and urged people to get checked and educate themselves of possible symptoms.
“I want people to know that the first year survival rate of lung cancer is 17 per cent and that it is the least funded of the common cancers Australia-wide.
“Part of my grief journey is about trying to ascertain as to what I can do with it … this is what I want people to know” she said.
To donate to Deb’s cause, visit https://www.themarchcharge.com.au/fundraisers/debrajordan/2020