Behind Troy Stanborough’s smile is a bitter desire to fight against the biggest challenge of his life – translocation associated renal carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
The 42-year-old Forrestdale husband and father of three children was diagnosed in October 2018 after going to his doctor with concerns about a lump in his testicle and ongoing back pain.
The lump came back clear but the ultrasound revealed a mass in his kidney.
Bec and Troy Stanborough said the mass was an accidental find and it is extremely rare with only 200 documented cases in the world. “It is usually found in children and is very curable in kids but in adults it’s very aggressive and usually causes death,” the couple said.
“Doctors do not have a lot of knowledge regarding the cancer, which makes it hard to find out anything about it.”
In November last year Troy had surgery to remove half of his right kidney, however a further biopsy revealed the cancer had travelled into his lymph nodes and his adrenal gland.
Earlier this year the couple sat down with a surgeon to go over his options and they decided to take the other half of his kidney, the adrenal gland and whatever lymph nodes they needed to take to help him continue his fight against the aggressive disease.
“We haven’t been told of any time limit as such but after Troy’s first surgery we were told that if the cancer does spread he would be looking at two years,” Mrs Stanborough said.
“Our next appointment is on March 13 where we will get the results from his recent surgery and we will know more information.”
In the meantime the family has set up a GoFundMe page to help Troy tick off a few things from his bucket list.
“One of them is going to an AFL grand final, for as long as I have known him, which is 15 years, he has wanted to do that just for the atmosphere but he has never got there,” she said.
“Troy also wants to take a trip to Canada to have a white Christmas with his family, as the kids have never seen snow so he wanted to share that with them.”
Mrs Stanborough said they were in two minds about setting up a fundraising page but they felt it was the only way to pay for the treatment and make a few things on Troy’s bucket list a reality.
“We would really like to thank our families, friends, our doctors and nurses at Royal Perth Hospital and to everyone who has helped us, cooked for us and donated,” they said. “We truly appreciate every single one of you.”
The GoFundMe page has so far raised more than $2300.
