Weekly Times | IT WAS just after Christmas 2011 when Phil Butsch got a phone call.
A few days earlier, a mole had been cut out from near the then 28-year-old’s hairline.
The Horsham Saints footballer had the same spot checked six months earlier and it was given the all-clear, but when it started to itch he sought a second opinion.
He and his family were on holiday — Butsch, now 32, says he hadn’t even thought about the tests — when the doctor rang through with the results. It was a melanoma.
Now, after close to four years battling the disease, the father of two has a different outlook on life.
“I look back and things I used to get angry with, upset with and everything else, now I look back and think, how pathetic was that?” he said.
“You look at life differently. At the end of the day, life’s only short when you think about it.”
According to the Victorian Cancer Registry, Butsch was one of 127 new melanoma diagnoses, of which 74 were men, between 2009-13 in the Grampians region, which includes Horsham.
Butsch said the support of his wife, Mirella, and the football club were crucial to him. He kept playing football in 2012, and won the Wimmera league best-and-fairest that year, despite missing the first four rounds.
But it was shortly after that win that the most difficult treatment began.
After having tumours removed in April and September 2012 — the latter operation included the removal of some lymph nodes and saliva glands — Butsch started chemotherapy, which led to him shedding 12kg in four weeks. He described the pain as similar tobeing “belted up with baseball bats”.
But he said it was harder for Mirella than him, being unable to do anything to help, on top of looking after a then 19-month-old daughter Chloe.
Baby Lucy followed in January last year, just before her dad underwent brain surgery and more chemotherapy after tumours were found on his lung, femur and brain.
Butsch went into remission for a year, but he did not play football last season because of the brain surgery. He had been lined up to coach, and said it was a “blessing in disguise” for the team when former Port Adelaide player Shayne Breuer came on as his replacement.
The club’s football manager Roger Sordello — who was president from 2011-14 and became close to Butsch after the latter co-coached the seniors in 2011 — said he went “blank for the next five hours” when Butsch told him about the brain tumour.
Part of his relationship with Butsch, he says, was to get Butsch to put his health first and not worry about footy.
“You could see a look in his eye that he didn’t want this to defeat him or take him away from coaching” Sordello said
“As far as an inspiration to every other footballer and every other club person — Phil would hate me saying it — but he’s been amazing really.
“You always see him and he’s got a positive outlook and he’s always got a smile and always talks about how he can help someone else rather than himself.”
Butsch returned this season and has played 11 matches, despite resuming treatment after scans in January found another tumour on his lung. He has received great support at work, at home and the football club, which at one stage organised a charity golf day to raise funds to support the family. “You look back and you know who your true mates are — to step out of their comfort zone to organise something like that was huge,” Butsch said.
He believes his healthy lifestyle will help him beat his cancer. “It’s about being positive, saying to yourself, ‘This is the next hurdle. Righto I’ll get over that.’ And if there is another hurdle put in front of me, I am going to still get over it,” he said.
Butsch is still weighing up his football future beyond this year, but it will depend on his health, as well as how successful the Saints are this season. They finished minor premier as they hunt for their first Wimmera league flag after losing the decider last year.
“We felt maybe there was some significance there, that maybe it was meant to be a year when he was back playing,” Sordello said of last year’s loss.
Butsch thanked the staff at Peter MacCallum, where he received treatment, and hoped people would get on board to support the development of a new Wimmera Cancer Centre, which is currently at the fundraising stage.
Butsch said he had always been “relatively careful” when it came to sun exposure, because he had fair skin. He wants people to get their skin checked and to even seek a second opinion.
“My first opinion was (it was) an age spot and I was happy with that — righto that’s what I wanted to hear — instead of going to get a second opinion,” he said.
SKIN CANCER IN AUSTRALIA
At least two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer before the age of 70.
More than 750,000 Australians are treated for skin cancer annually.
Each year, more people die from skin cancer than from transport accidents in Australia.
SKIN CANCER PREVENTION AND DETECTION
Check the day’s sun protection times via the free SunSmart app. Use a combination of clothing, sunscreen, a hat, shade and sunglasses to protect your skin during these times.
Get to know your skin so that you’ll notice changes quickly.
Get all of your skin checked, not just areas that are exposed to the sun.
Source: SunSmart. Visit sunsmart.com.au
FUNDRAISING
This Friday is Daffodil Day, raising funds for the Cancer Council.
To donate to the Wimmera Cancer Centre fundraising appeal visit the Wimmera Health Care Group website www.whcg.org.au or call (03) 5381 9111
