By Jessica Micallef
Greg Morvell is an avid walker. He’s travelled to Tasmania, Nepal and New Zealand to tackle some of the world’s greatest walking tracks.
But a walk around Melbourne’s CBD will be like no other.
The Bullengarook resident was diagnosed with oropharyngeal – cancer at the back of the throat, in 2010.
A tumor located at the base of the tongue meant surgery wasn’t an option. Instead, he endured more than six months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.
“The upside was I haven’t had any of those side effects that you get from surgery,” Mr Morvell said.
“A lot of people have mouth cancer and it can get pretty messy in the mouth.
“The downside was I had to do quite a bit of chemo and radiotherapy. It wasn’t very pleasant.”
Once his treatment was complete, Mr Morvell wanted to begin walking again.
“My wife and I have been walkers for a long time. We used to do a lot of overnight bushwalks until we had children,” he said.
“The prompt to start walking again came from the cancer treatment. After I finished treatment, we decided we would have a weekend away in Tasmania. There’s a walk you can do there. It’s called the Overland Track.
“We thought perhaps we aren’t too old to start doing this again. We got fit, which was a great way to recover from the treatment.
“Since then we have walked in Nepal and New Zealand.”
Since his recovery, Mr Morvell has spent his time volunteering for the Cancer Council. He will also be participating in the organisation’s Walking Stars event next month – a 21-kilometre evening stroll around Melbourne to raise funds for the organisation.
“I wanted to give back in some way,” he said. “They have a program called Cancer Connect which is a phone support program. I’ve been doing that since 2013.
“One of my goals is being able to get on the phone and say, ‘I had treatment a few years ago
and guess what, I am still here.’
“By doing these walks, it’s a way to reassure people. People still … have this great fear that when you get diagnosed with cancer that that’s it.
“You can get through it and there’s life on the other side.”
Walking Stars is on Saturday, December 7 and begins at Alexandra Gardens.
To donate: bit.ly/37mPFGc
