Sarina father diagnosed with terminal cancer
This beloved father and grandfather thought retirement was approaching until a routine eye test revealed devastating news.
Three weeks ago Queensland’s Pitcher family were preparing with excitement for a festive get together on the Gold Coast with their extended loved ones.
Now, the Sarina family are facing what is their last Christmas together.
The family has been left reeling after learning the devastating news father Danny Pitcher was diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer.
As they come to grips with the shock diagnosis, the close-knit family has been overwhelmed by the community support, as many hands work together to offer help and comfort in their time of need.
Daughter Eboni Pitcher said their world unravelled in late November after her father booked in for an eye test for blurred vision.
Unaware of the cause, her parents had even started discussing retirement thinking perhaps it was just exhaustion.
For the past six years Danny, 64, worked as a truck driver at Elgas, after owning his own coffee van and 30 years across Sarina Shire and Mackay Regional Council.
But the eye test turned into an MRI which turned into a biopsy in Townsville that uncovered dead brain tissue.
The result, on December 2 Danny was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme which is an aggressive brain tumour, and because of its location surgery was not an option.
His prognosis was six weeks up to six months with the limited treatment options available to him, which Eboni said her dad was determined to pursue for as long as possible.
“This will be our last Christmas,” Eboni said.
She had booked the big family trip 12 months ago as a way for everyone to catch up.
Now Eboni said they were just trying “to make the memories that we can”.
For Danny’s devoted wife Genevieve, and their six children (Robin, Jess, Blake, Jack, Eboni and Courtney), everyday was just a rollercoaster of emotions.
A single mum raising her single girl, Eboni said her father was a doting grandfather and her daughter’s male role model.
“It just cuts me that if I was to have another child that child would miss out on having such a great grandfather,” she said.
“Big milestones that you always thought you’d have with your parents and then you’re robbed of it.”
Eboni said her dad was also a loving father figure to his sister’s five children, as well as to many of her friends and others in the community with the family taking in many foster children over the years.
A GoFundMe for Danny has raised more than $10,000 to help with medical and other costs, while the community has rallied around the beloved man who also always was heavily involved in junior sports from coaching softball teams to training little athletics.
Eboni said if he wasn’t helping he was at the sidelines cheering people on.
She said the support they’d received was overwhelming, and wanted to thank everyone who had reached out offering to help.
“The Sarina football under 16s team … have made a roster to help take care of my parents’ yard.
“They’ve organised Christmas presents for our kids,” she said.
“It’s made me emotional so many times – every phone call I get.
“It’s just nice to see because we love and adore our dad and we’ve always thought he was the best guy on the planet … you always think they’re going to live forever.
“It’s just nice to see that so many other people feel the same way about our dad. So many people see his kindness.”
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Originally published as Sarina father diagnosed with terminal cancer
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