Family takes battle with cancer personally

Dean Dimmock was looking forward to giving back to his wife Angie after she had spent seven years nursing him through prostate cancer treatment.
Mrs Dimmock had health issues of her own they needed to deal with. The former marathon runner needed brain surgery to remove a 30mm tumour.

“Finally, it’s my turn to look after you,” Mr Dimmock told his partner of 34 years.
That was September 2022. Less than a month after her operation, Mr Dimmock was diagnosed with a double-hit lymphoma – a rare aggressive cancer completely unrelated to the prostate cancer – and Mrs Dimmock was thrust back into the role of nurse.

“The treatment was absolutely gruelling,” Mrs Dimmock said.
“And then we’d get to the stage where they would be testing to make sure the lymphoma had gone, and they’d find a lump somewhere. It was just awful, it was truly awful.”
Over the next 12 months, Mrs Dimmock and the couple’s daughter Alyce watched Mr Dimmock fight bravely. but by October last year, his immune system could cope no more.

He held on just long enough to see his second granddaughter born, 18 days before his death. Mr Dimmock died at age 56, eight years after his prostate cancer was detected.
“Literally, in 12 months, he disappeared in front of us, sadly,” Mrs Dimmock said.
“It was the saddest thing you could imagine.”

Mrs Dimmock and Alyce are still grieving, but at least 20 of their family and friends will participate in this year’s Luminary City-Bay fun in September to honour Mr Dimmock’s legacy and raise money for cancer research.

Family friend Stela Lumsden has organised the Doing It For Dean City-Bay team, which will continue Mr and Mrs Dimmock’s proud tradition of fundraising for the Flinders Foundation.
The couple have been passionate fundraisers for the foundation for many years, raising between $50,000 and $60,000 – primarily for research into prostate cancer.

“Deans passion for finding the answer won’t stop because he’s gone … I suppose if anything his memory keeps the hope firing,” Mrs Dimmock said. “Because the biggest hope you can put out there is that they find answers and stop this cancer.”

Their fundraising efforts included Mrs Dimmock and three friends running the New York Marathon in 2018.
Her 2022 brain operation left her with hearing and balance difficulties, so she is no longer able to run – but is determined to walk the 12km of the City-Bay.

The Doing It For Dean team will include cancer researcher Associate Professor Luke Seth, who worked with Mr Dimmock for years. Their fundraising helped purchase a special incubator at the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer, and professor Selth is planning to create a scholarship named or Mr Dimmock.

“Without the funds that are raised by Angie and Alyce and their amazing group of friends, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do,” Professor Selth said.

“But it goes way beyond the money … talking to people like Angie and Dean really rams home the importance of why we’re doing this research.”

To help the Doing It For Dean City-Bay fundraising efforts go to citybay24.grassrootz.com/flinders-foundation/doing-it-for-dean

Written by Paul Ashenden – Sunday Mail