{"id":497631,"date":"2026-02-22T22:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T22:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/497631\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T22:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T22:58:14","slug":"mount-gambier-man-given-three-months-to-live-documents-battle-with-rare-lymphoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/497631\/","title":{"rendered":"Mount Gambier man given three months to live documents battle with rare lymphoma"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was early October 2025 when 49-year-old Ben Whitehead had a sudden change in his health.<\/p>\n

“In a matter of weeks, I went from someone that could run 130 kilometres a week down to someone that struggled to mow a lawn,” he said.<\/p>\n

Ever since, Ben’s journey with a rare and debilitating cancer diagnosis has led him interstate and to novel treatments.<\/p>\n

Through his journey, which he has documented on social media, he has done everything he can to keep his positivity and push on, despite the odds against him.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ben Whitehead has documented his journey on a Facebook page, even making a T-shirt bearing the page’s name. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)<\/p>\n

A fateful hospital visit<\/p>\n

Following an ambulance trip to the local hospital at Mount Gambier, in South Australia’s south-east, preliminary testing discovered Ben had cancer.<\/p>\n

At the time, he was encouraged to go to Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, almost five hours away by car, for more scans and a formal diagnosis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It was going to take at least three weeks to actually see a specialist and that didn’t mean I was going to be treated,” he said.<\/p>\n

After encouragement from a family member, Ben travelled to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne where he was told he had stage 4 peripheral T-cell lymphoma.<\/p>\n

“Basically, when I actually got to Melbourne, I was borderline on my last couple of breaths,” he said.<\/p>\n

“In an awful situation, I was very lucky to go down the path that I did to get where I was.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ben Whitehead has tried multiple treatment options for his cancer. (Supplied: Ben Whitehead)<\/p>\n

Ben was initially given three months to live, with his strain of cancer one the doctors “hadn’t seen before”.<\/p>\n

“Their way of explaining it to me was [it was as] if my T-cell lymphoma caught T-cell lymphoma, that’s how rare it is,” Ben said.<\/p>\n

Ben’s clinician in Melbourne, Philip Thompson, said the cancer was both making Ben feel generally unwell and in pain.<\/p>\n

“If you can imagine something growing within a confined space it can start pressing on other things around and causing pain,” Dr Thompson said.<\/p>\n

“At baseline, [T-cell lymphoma] is much harder to treat than B-cell lymphomas.<\/p>\n

“The majority of people with T-cell lymphoma eventually die from their disease.”\"A<\/p>\n

Ben Whitehead named his Facebook page after his poor prognosis. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)<\/p>\n

Starting an ‘unknown chapter’<\/p>\n

In the months following his diagnosis, two different types of chemotherapy were unsuccessful and Ben’s prognosis was not improving.<\/p>\n

A day of phone calls back and forth with his doctor later, Ben was encouraged to sign on for phase one of a clinical trial.<\/p>\n

“They were left with no other choice \u2026 the weird bit is, I’m number one in the world on this trial,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Now, it’s great to be a guinea pig, but there is the possibility the goo goes in your arm and that could be the end of you.<\/p>\n

“That’s your decision. You’ve got to be willing to be that number one.”\"A<\/p>\n

Philip Thompson is a clinical haematologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. (Supplied: Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre)<\/p>\n

Dr Thompson said without patients like Ben, who were willing to take part in clinical trials, it would be impossible to make advancements in treatment.<\/p>\n

“It does take a lot of courage to commit to going on a clinical trial,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You have to be willing to take a step into the unknown and place your trust in the people who are advising you.”<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, as of last week, Ben is no longer part of the clinical trial, after a PET scan found new nodules growing.<\/p>\n

“It’s showing that this gremlin is just adapting with everything we’re throwing at it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There may be another trial to go down, I’m just waiting for that phone call.<\/p>\n

“It’s another unknown chapter in the journey.”\"A<\/p>\n

Ben Whitehead making some repairs to his fake mouse tail, used for practical jokes. (ABC South East SA: Josh Brine)<\/p>\n

Keeping positive in dark times<\/p>\n

In an effort to stay optimistic and bring others along on his journey, Ben has taken to documenting his treatment on Facebook.<\/p>\n

“I would spend eight or nine hours on the phone each day just keeping people updated,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But in a sense, when people get cancer \u2026 and they go away for treatment, most of their family and friends won’t see them until they’ve come back home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I just thought, ‘Well, let’s document this and we’ll put it out there’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Whatever outcome it is, just be raw. Just let it rip.”<\/p>\n

A big part of that journey has also been practical jokes with hospital staff.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ben Whitehead surprised hospital staff with his nipple tassels. (Supplied: Ben Whitehead)<\/p>\n

“I’ve gone in for the check-up and the nurse has come over and gone, ‘How have you gone?'” Ben said.<\/p>\n

“As I’ve stood up, I’ve flicked out a mouse tail that I’ve made out of a pool noodle and some fur and she’s cracked up laughing.<\/p>\n

“Then I was in seeing my main doctor, and I had a monitor on at the time, just where they were checking my heart rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’ve taken my shirt off and I actually had nipple tassels on.<\/p>\n

“You’ve gotta have the sense of humour for what’s going on.”<\/p>\n

He urged people not to “leave things unchecked”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If you think you’ve got something, there’s a good chance it could be, because our bodies know what’s going on,” Ben said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve just got to listen to them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was early October 2025 when 49-year-old Ben Whitehead had a sudden change in his health. “In a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,250435,1617,2287,137,18568,1679,65359,250436,79452],"class_list":["post-497631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-whitehead","tag-cancer","tag-clinical-trial","tag-health","tag-lymphoma","tag-medicine","tag-peter-maccallum-cancer-centre","tag-philip-thompson","tag-t-cell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}