New Campania coach Brodie Johnstone opens up on his cancer battle
Builder Brodie Johnstone is defying doctors’ predictions by coaching football and working full-time while battling stage three melanoma threatening his family’s future. He opens up on his journey.
He’s on the tools 40 hours week, takes care of a young family, plays local footy and has just been appointed coach of his country team.
On the flipside, Brodie Johnstone must have blood tests twice a week, brain scans and full body PET scans every eight weeks, and a shopping list of medical appointments as he fights stage three cancer that he has no idea if he will survive.
The 35-year-old builder copped a psychological sledgehammer from doctors in April when he was diagnosed with aggressive melanoma cancer.
His life to date has never been the same.
Brodie has a wife Natalie and son George, 3, works as a builder and last week took on the role of senior coach at Oatlands District Football Association club Campania.
It’s a full dance card, even without the fight of his life.
“I like to think I’m pretty tough, but things are pretty full-on,” he said.
“I’m working 40 hours a week and then throw footy and coaching in there as well, and family – it’s pretty hectic.”
Brodie’s life changed when he noticed a small irregularity on his neck – and he urges everyone who finds a skin anomaly to have it accessed immediately.
“I had a small lump on the side of my neck, it came out of nowhere, and it turned out to be cancer – stage three melanoma,” he said.
It started the size of a pea and quickly grew into a tennis ball.
Brodie had radiation treatment and six-hour surgery to remove the cancerous lump.
The surgery also took some of his neck and shoulder muscles and left a big scar.
“They told me I’d lose full movement in my shoulder, that I wouldn’t be able to play footy again and everything like that,” he said.
“I had the surgery in July and five weeks later I was playing in the grand final (Campania v Bothwell) with full movement, full everything.
“I’m back to almost 100 per cent movement-wise, so I’m defying the odds.
“The surgeons couldn’t believe it when I said I was playing in a granny.
“I had five weeks of radiation, surgery, and then played in a grand final five weeks later - it’s going to take a bit to knock me over.
“It’s just the unknown about the future.”
Brodie has played the past three seasons for Campania.
Originally from Burnie, he lived in Queensland for six years and when he returned to his home state played one season each at Richmond and Brighton, two at Hobart on his way to the ODFA Wallabies.
Campania got behind their star centre half-forward, now coach, when he got the devastating news.
“The club did a fundraiser to help me and I wanted to give back as much as I could,” he said.
“Coaching is where I wanted to go and the club was happy to have me, so that’s where we’ve landed.”
Campania lost the grand final, but Brodie starred, but no one who knows him was surprised.
Circumstances meant Brodie was blindsided by the cancer news.
“I went in to get the [biopsy] results but I was actually a week early, but I still said can I get the results,” he said.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be anything because they all told me it was maybe a cyst or maybe something non-cancerous.
“They took me straight in (to a consultation room), and I thought that’s a bit strange.
“The nurse said ‘it’s not great news, it’s cancer’.
“I nearly fell off the chair. I didn’t know what to say.
“I was in full, total shock.”
Brodie had no one there to catch him.
“Normally, you get to bring family members in and be around you, but because I went in a week early by myself, they sort of just dropped it on me.
“That was a bit of a rude shock really. I don’t remember driving home.
“I rang mum - I didn’t know what to do.
“As soon as the cancer word gets thrown about, it was like shit, I’m only 34 [at the time] and you’re life has been turned upside down.
“I’ve got a young family – a wife and a three-year-old. It was a shock to the system, and still is to be honest.
“It has been hard – hard on the family – it has turned our lives upside down.”
Immunotherapy is part of his treatment, but that upset his liver and put him in hospital for a week earlier this month.
“I was in hospital for a full week because my liver count was supposed to be between 20 and 30, and mine was 1400,” he said.
“I nearly died.”
Brodie’s medical team is doing its best, but no one know if he will beat the cancer curse.
“Ah…don’t know, really, we’re not sure,” he said.
“Next week I’ll have PET and brain scans to see where it’s at and how we move forward.
“They don’t really know – I might have to go to Melbourne – they are not sure.
“I have to wait until the middle of December to find out what the next movements are.”
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