Duncan Garner: I’m advocating for cancer patients in memory of my dad

I was finishing up at work when my mum rang to say I should come over as they had some “not great” news for me.

This was 14 years ago; it’s as clear to me as if it was yesterday. I sat down, asked questions, but mum said just come.

I knew straight away it was something to do with my best mate, my dad.

When I got to mum and dad’s place, I opened the door and dad was waiting at the top of the stairs, shaking. I slowly walked up towards him and we hugged and he started crying and he said, ‘I’m stuffed, It’s cancer.’ I replied, ‘We’ll fight it mate...’ while knowing nothing of what he’d just been told.

Nine months later on Thursday May 20, 2010 dad died, I was lying under his hospice bed holding his hand when the nurse came in at 5am and said he’d passed. It was also Budget Day and I was the political editor at Three News. Every Budget since then has been a reminder of his death and a reminder how little there was in the way of options to prolong his life.

Dad was the guy who had always been there for me; the guy in the grainy photos that remain stuck in family albums that can’t be deleted by a simple push of a button.

He’s the guy who never missed my games; the one who watched and listened to all my work during the years.

The guy who came and picked me up when I got too drunk to make it home as a teenager and, the next day, punished me by making me clean the mag wheels on his car with a toothbrush. He bought me my first bike, tennis racquet and home brew kit.

He was the one who sat with me and my mates, had a few and laughed with us into the wee small hours, giving each other a hard time and telling stories.