DAMIEN MacRae, 41, grew up in Londonderry and Richmond, and though his successful career as a lawyer took him to Sydney, it’s his Hawkesbury allegiance which is driving him to ask for our help to realise a dream Lego project with his son.
Damien’s striving to get his Lego dream up is intertwined with the other battle he’s engaged in – against serial ‘spot fires’ of his stage 4 melanoma.
He and Aiden, 4, have put together a Lego Surf Rescue scene prototype from bits and pieces they’ve sourced from vintage Lego and having individual pieces manufactured by an English company. They chose the Aussie beach scene because sun exposure is the biggest risk factor for melanoma, and he wants to get the message out there to cover up against the sun.
He heard that Lego would manufacture a scene if 10,000 supporters voted for it online and that the Ghostbusters Lego range had come about by this method. He found the only Australian scene Lego made was one of the Opera House, so he and Aiden set to work on their prototype scene.
“I’ve been off sick for two years now from my company so I’ve got to spend a lot of time with my son on it,” Damien said.
His melanoma started with a mole on his earlobe. They took a third of his left ear off to be sure. He was given the all clear, but a few months later an X-ray found a fist-size tumour in his chest. They took that out along with three ribs in March 2015.
“I had to relearn how to walk and sit as a whole lot of muscles and nerves were missing. I now have back and chest pain and am still getting over that,” he said. “Then six weeks ago I had a seizure out of the blue with with an arm and a leg waving around.” The walnut-sized brain tumour culprit was taken out three weeks ago.
More little tumours have been found in his brain but they will just be treated with radiation and new immunity-boosting drugs. “It’s like ‘Whack a mole’,” he said, referring to the arcade game of hitting moles with a mallet as they pop out of holes.
Support @LegoSurfRescue at https://ideas.lego.com/projects/155367.
