But his enlarged chest was a sign of a bigger problem and he was eventually diagnosed with Adrenocortical Carcinoma, a tumour on his adrenal cortex. 

“When it came along, there was only the one sort of symptom, and I didn’t think much of it, and as we learned about the tumour, it’s a bit of surprise and that, but you just keep going I suppose,” he said. 

The two adrenal glands sit above the kidneys and produce hormones. 

The tumour on his adrenal cortex, which is outside the gland, had grown to over a kilogram and a half by the time of his surgery in December. 

Mr Fisher said the initial surgery in Melbourne did not go as planned. 

“There were complications from the original surgery. There was damage to my liver, so it was leaking bile into my abdominal cavity,” he said. 

While he was saying this, his fiancée Samantha Meade said he had to get four transfusions of blood during the surgery, during which they also had to patch up his liver. 

After that December 10 surgery, in which one adrenal gland, his gall bladder and part of his liver was removed, Mr Fisher was eventually discharged. 

But with Christmas rapidly approaching he was getting sick again. 

“After a couple of days I was sweating really badly, was tired, drained of energy, like a fever,” he said. 

“I went back to hospital, and it was Staphylococcus.” 

This had him in hospital over Christmas, with the actual surgery to deal with the infection on Christmas Day. 

“I was in hospital about 11 days (that time). (On Christmas Day) I watched the fireworks down in Melbourne, from the hospital,” he said. 

Helping him through this are his two children Maddelyn, four,  and Jayden, two. 

While they don’t like the hospital this ordeal has also meant he has spent more time with them, as he won’t be able to get back to his job at malt-producer Cargill until fully cleared by doctors. 

Before getting to that point, Mr Fisher still has a massive hurdle to clear – treating the cancer itself through radiation and a drug derived from insecticide. 

Getting the drug for his rare cancer has almost proved a major problem for the young family, in addition to the disease itself. 

Because  Adrenocortical Carcinoma affects so few people in Australia, a common treatment is not listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and has to be imported from Europe. 

The family was facing a bill of over a thousand dollars a month for mitotane, but they said their oncologist at the Ballarat Regional Integrated Cancer Centre has told them it would be covered by the hospital. 

BRICC has also taken another weight off their shoulders, putting them on a study that means expensive blood tests to monitor the mitotane treatment are also covered. 

It can only be done at a laboratory in Newcastle, Mr Fisher said. 

It was these costs that spurred a friend to make a fundraising page for them, and it will still go to helping them get through the lengthy battle still to come. 

Once Mr Fisher starts on the mitotane there are all sorts of risks as it attacks the cancerous tissue still in his body. 

He told The Courier it is a chemical relative of an infamous pesticide. 

“It can really play havoc with your system this stuff,” he said. 

“Mitotane is a derivative of insecticide, DDT. I don’t know how they discovered the connection there with suppressing adrenal cancer.” 

Mr Fisher said he could be taking mitotane for years. 

“They say (I could be taking it for) anywhere up to five years. Obviously hopefully it’s not that long,” he said.  

Once it starts it will be a balancing act in keeping his hormone levels right as well, as the drug will stop his remaining adrenal gland from working. 

“They’re hoping with the mitotane and the radiation therapy they can stabilise it, and they can get the toxicity level in the system and balance between the hydrocortisone and mitotane, so that I could have minimal side effects and work,” he said. 

In addition to the imported drug, he will soon be on radiation therapy at the hospital, that could pose a risk to his kidneys, which are right below the remaining gland. 

He is remarkably stoic about this risk, which is only of several possible serious side-effects. 

“They reckon there’s probably a good chance I’ll lose one of my kidneys. You only need half of one to survive, though,” he said. 

There is a community around Adrenocortical Carcinoma that has been a source of information and support for the family. 

“We’ve got on to a group on Facebook, a global group, of sufferers and carers of ACC,” Ms Meade said. 

“There’s only about five other people we’re aware of in Australia with it...that are on that group.”  

She also said her research had been eye-opening. 

“I think there needs to be more awareness over the rare cancers,” she said. 

“From the research I did, one in two is diagnosed with rare cancer.” 

Mr Fisher agreed, saying there could be greater attention on cancers like his. 

In between the radiation therapy will come another milestone for the family. 

They are getting married on February 21^st.   

You can help the Fisher and Meade family at www.gofundme.com/thefishers.