By sports editor Russell Bennett
As Ryan Frazer prepares for his biggest fight yet, he’s spurred on by the astonishing generosity of the local community that’s rallied behind his cause.
The popular Kooweerup local turns 22 next month, and has just learned that the brain cancer he first fought with every fibre of his being in 2017 has returned.
Ryan hasn’t stepped foot on to an oval for a competitive footy game for his beloved Demons for more than three years, and now that wait doesn’t have a foreseeable end date.
But that day – when he can pull on the red and blue guernsey again – well, that’s what’s fuelling him.
Ryan – a game development officer with AFL Gippsland – struggles to put into words just how blown away he is by the level of support he’s received from the community since he revealed his second battle with brain cancer.
A GoFundMe page, created by one of Ryan’s childhood mates Troy Dolan – himself a highly-respected Kooweerup footballer – staggeringly raised more than $26,000 within the first two days of it being posted.
More than 290 donors contributed, on average, nearly $90 each.
Many of those donors Ryan has never met.
And the total is still rising.
That – at a time when the community is battling with both the health and financial challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic – has left Ryan gobsmacked.
“It just made me feel so loved, to be honest,” he said.
“Half those people I don’t even know, and they’re donating money at such a tough time for everyone in the community given the pandemic.
“It’s a truly incredible feeling, and it’s really empowering to know so many people are behind me and it’s taken so much pressure off us as a family.”
He’s not scared of the battle he’s facing or outcomes beyond his control. He’s just focussed on his fight, with his family and his partner alongside him every step of the journey.
Back in July of 2017, after months of misdiagnosis, he was told he had a medulloblastoma – the most common kind of cancerous brain tumour in children, but rare – and often aggressive – in young adults.
At just 19, Ryan’s life changed completely.
But through it all, his fighting spirit has only continued to strengthen.
After having surgery in mid-2017, he underwent six straight weeks of radiation from that September onwards. Six weeks, five days a week.
Remarkably, he’d played footy right up until just a few weeks before his diagnosis. He was nauseous and would vomit most mornings, but he had no idea why.
After finally being encouraged to get an MRI – following his initial misdiagnosis – he was at home alone when he got the call to say he had a mass on his brain.
“I was more filthy I had to leave home – that I had to be in hospital,” he explained with a laugh.
“I was watching the Blazers in the (NBA pre-season) Summer League final and I was absolutely dirty I had to leave. I was watching it in the car on the way to the hospital while everyone else was pretty upset. I’ve been pretty level-headed through it all. I’ve taken it on pretty well, I think.”
In January this year, before the Covid pandemic took hold, Ryan – a Portland Trailblazers diehard – headed to the United States, with his family and his girlfriend Megan, for the trip of a lifetime to celebrate being in remission.
Ryan simply idolises Blazers superstar Damian Lillard and even got his likeness tattooed on his forearm. In January, not only did Ryan get to meet his hero before a home game against the Charlotte Hornets, he showed him his tattoo.
Lillard, one of the NBA’s biggest names, even recognised the game the tattoo was based on, and signed Ryan’s arm so he could add to it the following day.
Since Ryan’s initial diagnosis, he’s gone from not fully understanding the role of an oncologist, to being inundated with information on brain cancer.
He said his initial diagnosis was “almost a relief” because he then knew what he was facing – what he could take on, head-on.
“Then it became ‘now we know what’s going on, let’s get it fixed. Let’s get on top of it’,” he said.
This time around, Ryan became aware that his cancer had returned through a routine six-monthly scan.
“I feel the best I’ve felt in ages – I don’t feel sick at all right now,” he said.
“It’s obviously a bigger challenge now – it’s worse because it’s a relapse. I have four little tumours now, and I’ve been told how we’re going to treat it.”
The only time he’s felt scared through this second diagnosis was when the subject came up of having palliative care as an option down the line, if his condition worsens.
He doesn’t want to know his prognosis, given the uncertainty.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I could be perfectly fine soon, or it could go the other way – we just don’t know. But what we do have is a lot of treatment options on the table,” he said.
“And what I do know is how important it is to just live your best life and keep doing it, because you just don’t know what’s in store.”
Ryan will undergo clinical chemotherapy trials through a hospital based in Memphis, Tennessee. They will run for more than two years, but he won’t have to spend each day in hospital.
While Ryan’s family and his partner throw all their support behind him during his hour of need, the money raised for the family through the GoFundMe page will go straight to paying bills and medical expenses.
To donate, visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/frzys-fight-to-beat-brain-cancer-a-second-time
