Tweed man's inspiring walk to Sydney
A TWEED man living with cancer is walking to Canberra via Sydney to create awareness about the illness.
Refusing to lay down, despite suffering from stage two melanoma, Martin Gallea is standing up and walking for his fight for life over the next three weeks.
"It's mind over matter, even though I'm in pain every day,” said Mr Gallea, who has been walking from Tweed to Surfers Paradise and back for the past year to prepare.
"But I just deal with it and keep going and that's why I wanted to get up and do this.”
Setting off on Wednesday, Mr Gallea was planning to reach Ballina by the end of the day, and will track a path to Sydney with planned stops around Coffs Harbour, Grafton, Kempsey, Taree and Newcastle.
Mr Gallea was hoping he'd be able to secure accommodation along the way but will stay in his tent if necessary.
Having undergone eight weeks of radiation treatment, Mr Gallea is scheduled to face more at the end of this year.
"I wanted to get up and do something before it's too late, and show people who aren't sick that you can achieve anything,” he said.
