Garvan Partner for the Future Terry Gallagher holds a picture of himself with his brother Peter.
A brother’s tribute
Peter Gallagher lost his life to prostate cancer on 19 September 2014, his father’s birthday. In Peter’s memory, his brother Terry seeks to make a difference to the disease that claimed him
Born 18 months apart, Peter and Terry Gallagher were close from the beginning and grew ever closer with the passing of time. Now, more than three years following Peter’s death from prostate cancer, Terry’s admiration for his older brother is undiminished. “I’d like to honour him by telling his story and helping the Garvan Institute, through a gift in my Will, to find better treatments for this insidious disease prostate cancer. “Peter was one of those people who couldn’t do enough, never took offence at anything,” says Terry. “He was an inspirational secondary school teacher, in English, history and economics. When we would walk down the street in Dee Why (Sydney), young people would stop him and say, ‘You’re the best teacher we ever had.’ He was a top-flight sportsman, played professional first-grade rugby league for Eastern Suburbs, 90-something games against the best of the era. Whatever he did he excelled in. Just an all-round good guy.” Close to 100,000 Australians are living with prostate cancer, making it the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Australian men, and the third most common in the population after breast and colorectal cancers. It is also the country’s third most common cause of cancer death. Prostate cancer affected both Gallagher brothers. Terry, with a low-risk, early stage of disease, was eligible for
radioactive brachytherapy seed implants, which have successfully kept his cancer in check. By contrast, Peter’s cancer was already advanced when it was detected, and surgery could only remove part of the tumour. Doctors then found secondary cancers throughout his body and prescribed a chemotherapy regimen. Despite this, sadly Peter passed away within a year of diagnosis. Peter’s experience left Terry seeking better solutions for prostate cancer. “I went on a tour of Garvan and learned about the research into personalised medicine, getting chemotherapy right so it doesn’t knock the hell out of people. I thought this was very worthwhile,” he says. The encounter motivated Terry to help progress medical research through becoming a Partner for the Future and nominating Garvan as a beneficiary of his Will. “It all goes back to my brother,” says Terry. “I don’t want anyone else to lose someone close to them in the same way. My support of Garvan is a tribute to him.”
Thank you Terry for your future bequest and for granting Garvan the honour of Peter’s legacy.
If you would like information about leaving a gift to Garvan in your Will and becoming a Partner for the Future, please contact our Bequest Manager, Carol O’Carroll, on (02) 9295 8117.
February 2018 | 11
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