Couple’s shared trauma brings them together to raise prostate cancer awareness

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Recently widowed West Australian sheep farmer Liz Heggaton and northern New South Wales surf writer Tim Baker should never have met. They detail how a shared traumatic experience brought them together to raise awareness about prostate cancer.

Transcript

00:00Yeah, I guess you would consider Liz and I a bit of an odd couple, you know, this WA

00:13farming lady and this New South Wales North Coast surfer and writer.

00:18You know, I can't imagine too many other contexts in which our paths would have crossed.

00:25But having that shared experience does bond you because, you know, you're kind of in this club that not too many people can really understand.

00:39Oh my goodness, honestly, Tim and I are polar opposite as far as our lifestyles.

00:46I've only ever tried to surf once and there was no way I was ever going back to that.

00:50I thought before I met with him that he was a vegan and here I am a lamb producer.

00:57Well we really need like a blue day, like we have a pink day.

01:00I mean, it's the number one diagnosed cancer in Australia.

01:03But of course they've got something in common and I think all credit to both of them.

01:08I think it's a wonderful thing that they've reached out to each other and if some good comes out of it, wouldn't that be great?

01:16So imagine one day tens of thousands of people sitting in a sporting stadium.

01:21Or wearing their blue bucket hats maybe.

01:25They both have a fierce determination to make a difference and to help others understand.

01:31This is a treatment that does save lives but it can also have life wrecking consequences for some patients.

01:40There's a lot of women who've lost men in their lives.

01:43Yeah.

01:44Yeah, it's really sad and we can do better.

01:47We both know what those darkest days have been like and I think Liz was kind of the right ally at the right time.

01:55Just to kind of, she kind of lit a bit of a fire under me and went, yeah, the job's not done.

02:00Yeah.

02:01Yeah.

02:04Amen.

02:05Yeah.

02:06Sure.

02:07Yeah.

02:08Yeah.

02:09Yeah.

02:10You know, the pain of your society helps the shin, of your existence to a good purpose.

02:12And it's certainly not done.

02:14Yeah.

02:15Right.

02:16Yeah.

02:17Yeah.

02:18No to-

02:20Go back.

02:21Yeah.

02:22Right.

02:23I'm not done.

02:25Now to-

02:27Go back.

02:28Right.

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