Diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour, Terry hit the road with his caravan
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It was Terry Crisp's lifelong dream to drive a caravan across Australia.
He retired in early 2019 to set out on this journey with his partner Deb Jenkins. It had been a trip he was mapping out in his mind for decades.
But instead of red dust and secluded beaches, he found himself in hospital.
He had an unexpected seizure and was later diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour.
"We felt quite distraught," Ms Jenkins said.
"As a couple, we felt we weren't going to be able to do what we always wanted to do."
Surgery and treatment followed, and the months he was given to live fell away as he attended appointment after appointment.
But he was determined to change his narrative when he completed radiation in August 2019.
"I said, 'I'm getting out of here,'" Mr Crisp said.
This couple has travelled to every country in the world. Now they want to inspire more women to travel.
Despite needing to continue oral chemotherapy, Mr Crisp and Ms Jenkins bought a caravan.
They enquired with the Royal Melbourne Hospital about using telehealth so Mr Crisp could keep making his medical appointments while travelling.
Back in 2019, this service was rarely used for cancer patients.
"At first they said, 'You really need to be nearby. Every month we need to monitor your blood,'" Ms Jenkins said.
"But we had a friend's birthday in Western Australia, which was a really important thing for Terry to attend — psychologically and emotionally."
Ms Jenkins is also a nurse. She negotiated telehealth arrangements with the hospital, and the couple was given the green light to get out on the road.
"It was almost like we were running away from that chemo and radiation," she said.
Both Mr Crisp and Ms Jenkins are self-proclaimed "tech dinosaurs". But despite this, they had their first phone consult on the side of a road in Adelaide and their first telehealth call in WA.
Australians living in regional and remote parts of the country could soon have access to specialised health care as telehealth program expands.
As they continued travelling, they dialled in for monthly appointments.
"It was fun in a way because we had to meet all these different regional doctors and get the blood tests done, and then find chemists in regional Australia," Ms Jenkins said.
"It all worked really well — if we couldn't get a medication somewhere, they would tell us to go to a town an hour away.
"There were so many nice and caring people along the way."
Even in Eucla, one of the most remote towns on the WA-SA border, they defied the technological odds and managed to connect via video call.
"Our reception was a bit dodgy but we talked to the local nurse and used their satellite," Mr Crisp said.
This first trip was a watershed — Mr Crisp successfully continued his cancer treatment despite being months on the road.
Since then, the couple has embarked on drives through the Northern Territory and Queensland for weeks at a time, while coming back to Victoria for scans when necessary.
And three years later, Mr Crisp is still going strong.
Ms Jenkins thinks their travelling has something to do with it.
Telehealth has been available at the Royal Melbourne Hospital since 2012, but Mr Crisp was one of its first cancer patients to use it.
Telehealth services will be made a permanent feature of Australia's healthcare system, following its success in connecting millions of Australians to their doctors throughout the pandemic.
Oncologist at the hospital, and Mr Crisp's doctor, Ross Jennens said before the COVID pandemic he did not have any patients who used telehealth.
But now about a third of his patients have appointments this way.
He said the technology had given many of his patients a better quality of life since diagnosis.
"It's nice to see people with cancer enjoying life," Dr Jennens said.
"That's the aim of them being on treatment — to be able to get out there."
Telehealth is now a permanent feature of Australia's healthcare system, with more than 18 million patients using the service between March 2020 and July 2022.
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