![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ae06a245-4pgvtxz6sr8rspd_w9gll_p9cvm.jpg\")
His treatment schedule involves five days on and 10 days off<\/p>\nA Tasmanian athlete and coach who has spent decades showing up for others is now the one in need of support, as a GoFundMe campaign is launched for combat sports figure Priscus Fogagnolo during his battle with cancer.<\/p>\n
The Lenah Valley man was diagnosed with testicular cancer around a month ago and has already undergone surgery.<\/p>\n
His long-time student Hamish McLaren set up the fundraiser after asking Fogagnolo for the chance for the community to help him for a change.<\/p>\n
McLaren, who has trained under Fogagnolo for 16 years in judo and MMA, said the diagnosis had come as a shock to many because Fogagnolo is an intensely private person.<\/p>\n
His treatment schedule involves five days on and 10 days off<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people across the state and Australia didn\u2019t actually know his medical condition and what he was suffering,\u201d McLaren said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think we\u2019ve found based on the immense reach already that, you know, there\u2019s a lot of people out there that he\u2019s had such a positive impact on.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ae06a245-gqj31yxj7xdgioq_k34b9_fo2p4.jpg\")
Fogagnolo was once named Tasmania\u2019s Strongest Man<\/p>\n
McLaren described Fogagnolo as possibly the most influential figure in Tasmanian combat sports history, with achievements spanning judo, MMA, Brazilian jiu jitsu, wrestling, strongman, powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting.<\/p>\n
Fogagnolo has competed at the world championships for judo, holds a 12-1 professional MMA record, was named Tasmania\u2019s Strongest Man, competed at the Arnold Strongman and was part of the Australian weightlifting team as a junior.<\/p>\n
He narrowly missed selection for the Olympics in judo and the Commonwealth Games in wrestling due to injury.<\/p>\n
He also set national records in discus as a junior that stood for around 15 years.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ae06a245-yorp8xsnyisx4iy_1bm4v_tygyp.jpg\")
McLaren described Fogagnolo as possibly the most influential figure in Tasmanian combat sports<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s achieved more across four different sports than some professional athletes will in their own one sport,\u201d McLaren said.<\/p>\n
Despite the gruelling treatment schedule of five days on and 10 days off, Fogagnolo is still showing up for his athletes.<\/p>\n
McLaren said he was still turning up at 5:30am to watch his athletes train who are competing at the Oceania championships as part of the Australian team.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s still painfully involved when he probably could just have a bit of a spell and sit back and rest,\u201d McLaren said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ae06a245-a6qdw1bcz4glxpr_0wpt8_8xvti.jpg\")
Fogagnolo holds a 12-1 professional MMA record<\/p>\n
Fogagnolo lives with his wife Bonnie and four sons.<\/p>\n
McLaren said his coach had never asked anyone for help and was surprised by the generosity the campaign had already received.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s actually sitting back and saying, \u2018Wow, I didn\u2019t realise people would be so generous,’\u201d McLaren said.<\/p>\n
Physical fundraising events are also being organised to support the family, who are dealing with significant financial, emotional and physical strain.<\/p>\n
McLaren urged anyone who could to donate, no matter how small the amount.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an opportunity for so many people to give back to a man who has been there for all of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
To donate: https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/priscus-fogagnolo-cancer-fund-raiser?cdn-cache=0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Tasmanian athlete and coach who has spent decades showing up for others is now the one in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-645536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645536","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=645536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}