When Chris Fieldus was diagnosed with kidney cancer at just 40 years old, he sat in his shed at home, opened a beer and had a chat with his dog, because in his words "my dog doesn't give his opinion, he gets mine."
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"I just thought, I could either sit here and wallow in self-pity, or I could just move on and hit the ground running and that's what I've done," he said.
Despite having his kidney surgically removed, the cancer came back when he was 45 and again at 50.
So, 16 years after first being diagnosed, the Orange man is still doing anything he can to get rid of his inoperable tumour, so that he can spend as much time with his family as humanly possible. This now includes taking part in his third clinical trial in the past seven years. To make that journey even harder, the first 12 months of those trials were spent travelling to and from Sydney in what were often 16-hour days.
"When you first get told that you have cancer, it's very difficult to take in. I've got a young family, a young grandson. It's a no-brainer to do what you can to stay around to be with them for as long as possible," he said.
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"There were three options that I had and I thought let's go. If it doesn't help me, it could help people in the future."
A year after first beginning those trials, and having travelled thousands of kilometres to do so, Mr Fieldus finally caught a break. In 2017, he was able to start taking part in clinical cancer trials at Orange Hospital, less than 3km from where he called home.
"When it was in Sydney, it was like I was part of a process. In Orange, you're part of their family and they're part of yours. I couldn't praise them enough, and that's not bullshit," he said.
"The hospital here, I could not say a bad word about it and the people."
The progress Mr Fieldus saw through his first two trials eventually plateaued and although he has seen a 27 per cent reduction in his tumour thanks to the latest trial, its progress too, is slowing.
Still, he has been thankful for every ounce of effort the doctors and nurses have put into his treatment.
"My clinical trial nurse, when she told me the news (that the tumour had reduced), she actually shed a tear. The care they give is outstanding," he said.
"I'm one of the lucky ones. It takes me about two-and-a-half hours from when I arrive at the hospital, go through the procedure and receive my treatment to when I'm out the door.
"It's a struggle, but it's all mindset."
Now, thanks to $6million worth of funding, patients in the Central West seeking out clinical trials may not have to travel to Sydney, with the Federal Government money going towards creating more staff and infrastructure to help make Orange Hospital and those health facilities in the Western LHD and Far West LHD "open for business" for any type of trial.
Asked what he would say to anyone recently diagnosed with some form of disease, that was considering undergoing a clinical trial, Mr Fieldus said: "The only advice I could give is if (doctors) were to give you something, then take it. They're so caring and they're only doing what's best for you.
"The care in Sydney, was perfect, but it was like a production line. For your clinical trial nurse to shed a tear...and so did I, when you had some sort of improvement is outstanding."
Dr Rob Zielinski, clinical lead for the western cluster clinical trial support unit, said the program would improve and enable earlier access to the latest treatments and therapies for rural and remote communities.
"What we need in this program is investigators and people who want to participate in clinical trials," he said.
"We'll be promoting this program to all clinicians in the west and far west to say that we've got some serious money from the government, but we need you to start recruiting and identifying patients.
"The third stage is going out to the community and saying we've got trials now and for them to start knocking on the door of their clinician and asking why can't you be in a clinical trial."
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