Pay It Forward Movement

By Richard Hinds
July 30, 2005

During Sydney's past nine home games, David Wade has sat in the back of the coach's box, the game's inner-sanctum. From over the shoulder of coach Paul Roos, he has watched the Swans try to fulfil their ambition, and his dream, of an AFL premiership.

For most Sydney players, there will be more chances, other seasons. In Wade's case, this campaign is a matter of life and death.

Late last year, a 15-centimetre tumour was cut from his lower intestine and, after a period during which he was given no definitive diagnosis, he was found to have the rare and, in his case, terminal carcinoid cancer.

Wade, 51, was told early this year he had six months to live. For a man who grew up in Melbourne as a South Melbourne fan, and moved to Sydney to work in the poker machine industry not long after the Swans flew north, that meant one thing: "Now I'm never going to see the Swans win a flag," he told his wife Georgina when wheeled out of radiation therapy.

So if this was to be his last season, he wanted to be close to the Swans.

Wade, Georgina and his daughters Patricia and Vicki had been members for years. But he wanted to "feel the club's culture".

"So I struggled out of bed one day, went down to the SCG and the team was training on the ground outside," says Wade, who, having gained the coach's attention, told Roos about his illness and his wish to play a role with the Swans before he died.

Initially, Roos told Wade to ring the Swans' office. "Then all of a sudden, I hear this voice calling me. He'd got a Biro and a piece of paper and written down his mobile phone number. He said, 'No, no, don't ring the club, you ring me'."

A few days later, Wade got home and found Roos was talking to his wife on the phone about his illness. Then came an invitation to sit in the coach's box.

"I felt for him, it was the least we could do. It's an old cliche, but it does put everything into perspective," Roos said.

Wade was taken into the rooms before the game and was privy to the cut and thrust of the coach's strategy. Roos even apologised that "we couldn't get a win for you" after the Swans lost to Adelaide.

Wade left thinking he had had a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But Roos rang before the next home game and he is now a regular fixture - and a good-luck charm, given the Swans have won their past seven home games.

The Swans have given him the motivation to help others with the same illness. In one conversation, Roos mentioned the movie Pay It Forward, which espouses the philosophy that you should repay a favour by doing three for someone else.

Wade's favour has been to help establish a website about carcinoid cancer. "There are only about 2500 cases diagnosed in the US each year and my doctors didn't know anything about it, which was pretty frightening," he said.

Through the website www.carcinoid.tblog.com, he has told two Australian sufferers about the drug Sandostatin and referred them to his specialist at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney. He also has applied for a government grant to continue the site.

But while he has passed his knowledge forward, from his perch in the box, Wade remains equally obsessed by how well the Swans pass the ball forward. Just being there has not quite fulfilled his dream. "I still want that flag," he said.