Ian Woodhouse – limited time left. Rejoice the man.

This is what CX reported at Christmas. Woodie is now unhappy, he has broken his collarbone. He doesn’t want a gathering, he just wants to leave. If you know Ian, send him a positive message about your times – nothing maudlin please…..

Early Departure for Woody
TAG audio specialist says goodbye

Audio specialist Ian Woodhouse would prefer to keep working at TAG (Technical Audio Group) in Sydney and depart quietly. But he has chosen to share news of his impending death to try to shake men into having regular checkups.

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“Blokes have a stupid attitude” he told CX over a coffee at TAG. Woody is a pale and shaky version of his ebullient self, slow to rise from his chair but determined to keep going as long as possible. How long is possible? “I want to make my next birthday – 68 in May”, he says. Plus go on one last holiday, a cruise with his wife Bobby and some friends.

How about a benefit or a living wake, we asked? “No way. I don’t think anyone would come”, he replied. In any case he has a modest whole-of-life insurance policy with AMP that should pay out shortly, since all his doctors agree his cancer is hopeless. Woody wants that resolved, so he can leave Bobby set up properly without him.

Woody says he contributed to his early departure, being slow to respond to early warning signs of prostate cancer around 2001. But by 2005 he was fighting hard, having had the thing removed and a ghastly round of high dose brachytherapy.

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With remission came support work for guys with the common cancer, so common that a myth of imperviousness has arisen, where elderly men are routinely diagnosed with a slow developing cancer that is often left to run its course. It can move quick, and it does kill younger men, as Woody knows too well.

Currently on 240mg of Morphine each day, Woody feels able to function well enough to continue work at TAG, who have been enormously supportive. That firm has had cancer come calling closely, with Mandy, the wife of founding partner Tony Russo cruelly taken in October.

What should men do, we ask? “Get a medical every year”, he says quickly. “And get the doctor to do a DRE (digital rectal examination). It’s just a quick finger up the bum, honestly it doesn’t hurt one bit. You’d think the average audio guy could handle that, I know some of you would actually enjoy it”, he joked.

Sadly Woody won’t be on the CX Roadshow in February as he can’t fly anymore. So we will raise a toast in each town for him, as he wants to be there as he was on the first Roadshow.