Riddled with cancer, former Austereo Marketing Director Sean Pickwell, married Brisbane’s most loved breakfast presenter, Robin Bailey 14 months ago. 

 
At the time, doctors had given Sean just six months to live. He wasted no time proposing to Robin, telling the Sunday Mail (subscription) “I would have understood if she had said no. Talk about buying damaged goods – that’s certainly how I was feeling about myself. Luckily, that’s not what Robin thought.”
 
Speaking to the Sunday Mail (subscription), Triple M radio presenter Robin Bailey, 50, after breaking the news privately to her co-hosts last week, resigned from The Big Breakfast to focus on her husband and family, with this Friday to be her last day. 
 
In a long letter, Sean, 56, has opened up about his illness, his love for Robin and family and how he has coped with the news that his liver cancer, first diagnosed in 2017, had spread to other organs as well as his blood and bones and that he was facing imminent death.
 
Here’s an excerpt…

Laughing was our go-to place, which I know sounds bizarre, but seriously, how do you deal with that kind of news at 56?

And I’m not a cancer guy.

I don’t get Cancer.

It’s for other people.

Now you are telling me to get my affairs in order, and to decide how I want to spend the rest of my … hang on, 5 months and 29 days (and counting…).

Poor old Mike our GP didn’t know where to look as we bantered silly gags back and forth, in between tears and hugs. Both of our heads were spinning, and we had no idea what was going on, or the future implications of what he had just said.

One thing Mike said, that triggered some pondering at my end was, “think about how you want to spend the next six months. Do you want to spend it in hospitals around the world chasing treatments that very likely aren’t there? Or would you spend it with those you love, doing the things you’ve wanted to experience?”

Robin and I left his office shell- shocked. We really couldn’t believe it, and to some degree I still can’t.

Read the full letter from Sean Pickwell: Why A Terminal Cancer Diagnosis Was The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me.