How powerful we are: Sydney man’s mission to remind us of our potential
Announcement posted by Sunrise Daily 10 Nov 2021
Tony Dowling’s diagnosis of Stage 4 bowel cancer gave him a 3% chance of survival. Embracing his zest for life, passion for helping others, and with the support of his family, Tony decided to be one of the 3 in every hundred to survive.
“Before I was diagnosed I was like everybody else, you know,” said Tony. “Busy working, married with two boys. My sister was diagnosed with breast cancer just before Christmas. I was sitting, praying, one morning and literally just felt that stirring that said ‘you need to go and get a checkup.’
“My doctor initially said ‘It looks fine to me’ but after I mentioned I’d had some blood in my stool he, as an afterthought, scheduled me for a colonoscopy.
Things became intense almost immediately, with the colonoscopy revealing a tumour the size of a ping pong ball in the large intestine. Tony didn’t initially understand what “Stage 4” meant …
“Obviously you have the physical, mental and emotional side of things. It was a really tough time for us, including financially.
Tony described his chemotherapy as “full on” and during that time would “literally drag myself out of bed whenever I could and just get to the beach.”
And that’s when Tony met Neil who was on the beach, every morning, taking photos of the sunrise.
“When you’re having this treatment, you’re all over the place. You wake up and don’t know what day it is, you don’t know who you are. They call it ‘chemo brain’. And I just kept bumping into Neil and thinking, ‘why do I keep bumping into this guy?’
“One morning in the car at Collaroy Beach, I was parked there and thinking ‘I’m not leaving this place. I’ve got too much to live for, raising the boys. I’m not exiting on my kids. I’m going to be hanging around. Now help me.
“Then I heard, ‘You’ve got to speak to Neil.’ … I didn’t even know who Neil was! And then, next time I was walking on the beach I bumped into the photographer guy again and he said ‘Hi, I’m Neil.’”
Every day for the last 24 years Neil has taken a photo of the sunrise (that’s over 80,000 photos!).
As a cancer survivor, Tony knew the importance of cherishing a memory and having a talisman to hold onto. Neil had sold his sunrise prints to family and friends, but Tony wanted to bring the unique concept to every Australian.
Since then, people all over Australia (and the world) have honoured pivotal dates in their lives (such as the day they became cancer-free or, for some, the day of their diagnosis) with a Sunrise Daily print. It’s something that means the world to us because that was exactly Tony’s mission when he set out on this journey, to remind us that the sun always rises – that there is always hope.
With each image photographed and printed in Australia and with every person able to have their custom message printed on their sunrise, Sunrise Daily helps people celebrate the days that mean everything to them.
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For more information about this topic, please call Tony Dowling on 0405 147572 or email hello@sunrisedaily.co
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