By Tanya Steele
A Ferntree Gully man has been staggered by recent news he has stage four cancer and the family is now turning to the community for help.
Receiving the terrible news in late October, 51-year-old Karl (or Ralph) Meerten as he is known is now battling cancer and his family and friends have rallied around him.
Mr Meerten said initially the diagnosis was a shock, with a sore shoulder sending him to his local GP.
“I went to the Doctors to find out about a sore shoulder, they did a blood test to check for a clot on the lung,” he said.
“Once they received the results I was sent to E.R. straight away for a CT scan of the lung to look for a clot, instead they found lumps and bumps on the scan and they started looking into it further.”
Soon after, an oncologist appointment saw Mr Meerten given a slew of tests for further investigations, but before he got his results back he landed in Box Hill Hospital with severe chest pains.
“I ended up in Box Hill hospital with severe chest pains, it felt like someone had punched me in the sternum and then sat on my chest, it felt like I couldn’t breathe,” Mr Meerten said.
The next day Mr Meerten was diagnosed with stage four small cell cancer of the lung, liver, prostate and bone and chemo started that same day as the diagnosis.
“My diagnosis has had the oncologists stumped as to how it has progressed so rapidly and in multiple places, considering my GP does routine yearly tests to check for everything,” said Mr Meerten.
“They are using my diagnosis as a case study as it is so rare for someone my age and health status,” he said.
Family and friends are in shock and sister Rachel Lichfield-Bennet has organised a Go Fund Me page in support – so far the page has raised just over 4,000 dollars.
Mr Meerten has already been through another serious health issue, surviving a stroke two years earlier and Ms Lichfield-Bennett said they are trying to raise as much as they can before April, a deadline for home renovation permits which were delayed by Covid and the stroke.
“I’d not long finished the recovery treatment from my stroke, went back to work and started to get back to normal life and now we have been hit with this news,” said Mr Meerten.
“Considering what Karl and his family have gone through he has always been able to stay optimistic, with a down to earth approach to life’s ups and downs – he has a fun-loving nature about him which is just infectious, some would say cheeky,” Ms Lichfield-Bennett said.
“He is very much a devoted family man to his wife Lisa and three children, he is a loyal friend, always ready to lend a hand if they need him.”
Mr Meerten has been a local of Ferntree Gully for 27 years and lived in the Basin before that.
“Karl has always been a local, volunteering a lot of his time while the kids were growing up at Knox Little Athletics and the Ferntree Gully Eagles Football Club, from juniors right through to seniors,” said Ms Lichfield-Bennett
Mr Meerten said for now he is taking things one day at a time.
“All my friends and family have been around to help out when they can, checking in and helping me get to appointments,” he said.
“The family has set up a go fund me to help support on the financial side of things, once I am out of holiday pay we are not really sure how that’s going to go with one income.”
Mr Meerten’s go fund me can be found at: www.gofundme.com/f/help-karl-ralph-his-family-through-his-cancer-battle
