Australian Idol star reveals fight against cancer that has killed 25 family members
Australian Idol winner Stan Walker has revealed his fight against a rare stomach cancer in a new documentary Stan.
The soulful singer, who won Australian Idol in 2009, had his family’s “ugly curse”, a mutated cancer gene which has killed 25 members of his family over the past three decades.
Stan’s mother April was being treated for breast cancer last year when she insisted her son go for a check-up.
The routine examination found the then 26-year-old pop star had gastric cancer, caused by the faulty CDH1 gene. His stomach would have to be removed.
Stan Walker won Australian Idol in 2009.
Stan decided to chronicle his operation, the complications he suffered and the impact of the cancer on his life and career, for his documentary.
“People made assumptions when I started posting photos afterwards and those assumptions turned into facts,” he said.
“It took just one person to say ‘Is he on drugs?’ and it didn’t matter who I was or how much credibility I had, when I went to gigs, before I could even have a sip of alcohol, someone would ask me ‘what drugs are you on?’
“I didn’t justify myself. I knew they would learn and feel really sh*t afterwards.”
Stan – as well as his mum, dad Ross and brothers and sister – relocated to Melbourne for his surgery, which removed his stomach and attached his oesophagus to his intestines.
It was the same operation his grandfather Rangi McLeod had almost 20 years before, but he did not survive it.
As the documentary reveals, Stan’s suffered many complications after surgery. He feared he would die but his greatest fear was that he would never sing again. For four months after the operation, he couldn’t do the thing he most loved in the world.
“I freaked out. I would try to laugh it off and joke about everything but in my heart of hearts, if my voice was gone, I didn’t know if I could get through this,” he said.
He booked a show in Rarotonga in December to give himself a goal, something to fight for.
The day before at soundcheck, his voice was still hit and miss.
“On the night of the gig, I started to sing Black Box and my voice came back and I turned around to the band with tears streaming down my face, saying ‘Thank you God, thank you,’” he said.
Stan is back to working on music and he hopes his documentary will help people on their own cancer journeys.
“Doing the doco helped me process my own feelings and understand a lot more about myself but I wanted to do it to help other people and their families who are going through the same thing, who feel like they are alone and can’t talk about it,” he said.
“People treat cancer like it’s Voldemort, like you can’t talk about it. Stuff that. Live your life now, don’t let a disease define who you are.