OLD BOYS
Sharing a sun smart message fixture in the Australian senior men’s Lightweight squad until 2015, with a World Championships gold-medal win just one of his career highlights. Since his diagnosis last year, Purcell has made sharing a Sun Smart message a priority, and his talk to current BGS students about his youth as a fair-skinned rower, first diagnosed with a melanoma at 15, resonated with the boys.
A champion rower’s words of advice are always welcome at the BGS Rowing Shed, but Old Boy Darryn Purcell ‘02 had a particularly important message for BGS rowers when he visited recently. While he shared the lessons and highlights of his 10-year international rowing career, Purcell also spoke to the boys about his biggest challenge yet – fighting a life-threatening metastatic melanoma.
“I have always been quite vigilant about sun protection, wearing long-sleeved shirts, consistent application of sunscreen, broad brimmed hats, avoiding being outside at peak times of day, all of the prescribed things,” he said. “But it’s also important to be aware of how damaging the sun can be at different times of the year and day. For instance, Queensland winter sun still causes damage to your skin, and the clean air down here in Tasmania means the UV isn’t filtered through smoggy skies.” “The only mole I had removed was when I was at school, shortly after the U15 rowing season. The disease came back with a vengeance after being in check for almost 19 years.” The melanoma’s recurrence has turned Purcell‘s life in Hobart as an engineer with John Holland, and dad to young boys Jude, 3, and Francis, 18 months, upside down.
“Having been involved in rowing for so long, it has shaped so many aspects of my life,” Purcell said. “It was really great to talk to the boys about taking care of their skin, but also to pass on some of what I’ve learned from nearly 20 years of rowing.”
“The first six to nine months were quite volatile. I had a large lesion in my skull and had several surgeries to remove a decent section of my skull and replace it with titanium mesh. I’m now on some immunotherapy treatment, and I’ll be balancing the fatigue and other side effects for another year or so,” Purcell said.
Part of his message was the importance of endurance and persistence. “In the early part of my career, I didn’t really grasp the effort that was required. However, the constant was that I was consistently seeking improvement each week, month or season and the results started to come as the seasons came and went,” he said. “While we only have a handful of opportunities in sport to achieve massive goals like winning Head of River, or making a national team, every time you turn up to training is a new chance to make some gains towards that goal.” Selected in the Queensland Schoolboy Rowing Team for the Henley Royal Regatta, Purcell went on to become a
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Looking back at his time at BGS, Purcell said developing a work ethic and the lasting friendships are what’s stayed with him. “Years later, with plenty of things going on in our lives, when we do get in touch the conversations and friendships have grown stronger, even if it has been some time since we last spoke.” Despite facing months of treatment, Purcell remains positive and enjoys having time to spend with his sons. “My wife Kate and I have two little gremlins that are really keeping us on our toes. The biggest goal that I have for their futures is to be around and see them start school.”
