The story of 50-year-old Tasmanian father, Lyndon, highlights the vital role the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer (FCIC), located in Southern Adelaide, plays as a beacon of hope for patients facing devastating diagnoses.

Diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2018 after a routine colonoscopy, Lyndon underwent successful surgery. For a time, he and his family—wife Melita and their two children—embraced life, believing the battle was behind them. However, just one year later, scans revealed the cancer had metastasised to his liver, sparking a relentless journey through surgeries, chemotherapy, and clinical trials across Tasmania and Victoria.

View Lyndon's incredible story

Hope after uncertain news

By 2021, after exhausting all available treatments locally and confronting the sobering reality of palliative care discussions, Lyndon faced an uncertain future. It was during this dark time that a clinical trial at the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer, South Australia’s only Integrated Cancer Centre established by Flinders Foundation in 2012, became his lifeline.

For a while, I felt like I was out of options,” Lyndon recalls.

“When I heard about the trial at the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer, it felt like a glimmer of hope. It gave me the chance to think about my future again.”

Since then, Lyndon has made 51 trips from his home near Hobart to Adelaide to receive groundbreaking treatment every three weeks at the Cancer Centre based on site at the Flinders Medical Precinct.

Despite the challenges of frequent travel and time away from his family, he remains positive, grateful, and determined to see his children grow up.

“I don’t take a single day for granted anymore. The Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer, and the support of the Flinders Foundation gave me that chance—to be here, to keep going,” he shares.

“I’ve been able to extend my life by nearly three years since I started this trial – and it makes you think about what's been unearthed in that three years… so that when this trial wraps up for me, when it’s no longer doing what it needs to do, that there will already be something else ready for us to try.... that’s the hope.”

Unite This World Cancer Day

The theme of this World Cancer Day, ‘United by Unique’, highlights the importance of person-centred cancer care, which is reflected in Lyndon’s rare cancer type. He is now the only Australian receiving the treatment offered from this specific clinical trial.

This theme also highlights the need for Flinders Foundation to call on the community to unite in our efforts to support groundbreaking cancer research and care.

Flinders Foundation believes that together, we can ensure no patient is left without options. It is calling on the community to unite and donate this World Cancer Day to help the Foundation continue to fund lifesaving research and compassionate care at the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer.