QAS INSIGHT | Summer 2017-18 edition

Pinnacle of achievement … and memories

“I am so delighted at having exceeded the $10,000 target for legacy,’’ Rhys said. “However, raising the money is a bonus, the real honour for me is being able to keep the memories of Alan and Zac in the spotlight so that we can continue to remember the great work they did and the wonderful impressions they made on so many lives.’’ The Nepal trip capped off what was a milestone year for Rhys who was named the face of the Cancer Council’s Queensland Relay for Life in 2017. Rhys, who also celebrated being cancer-free for eight years in October, said when he undertook the relay later that month, he was overcome with emotion. “Undertaking the first lap with other survivors was a really emotional experience for me,’’ he said. “Not only was I reflecting on my own personal battle with cancer, I was also remembering my own family and friends who had died from cancer.” It seems that there is no holding Rhys down: he is planning his next ‘bucket list’ trek – to Ecuador in 2018, where he will be attempting five volcano summits in 16 days.

■ Rhys and his co-climbers unfurl the commemorative banner.

“As a personal challenge I had substantially cut down my itinerary so that I could reach the summit on day eight, but I had to turn around because if I had kept going, I would have lost my toe. I could feel it freezing,” he said. The 29-year-old cancer survivor has dedicated his life to raising funds and awareness of the disease since being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2009. And while Rhys did not quite achieve what he had set out to do in Nepal, he was ecstatic to exceed his fundraising goals for 2017, which was to raise $10,000 for QAS Legacy. The Nepal trip pushed Rhys’s efforts for legacy in 2017 up to $11,500, with the money being donated to the families of two paramedics – Alan Price and Zac Leto– who tragically died while still employed by QAS.

It was a bittersweet feeling for ACP2 Rhys Greedy when he took on Nepal’s mighty Mera Peak on October 29 for his latest QAS fundraising effort. Rhys, who was climbing his fourth mountain in as many years, came extremely close to reaching the 6,476 metre summit on day eight, but was forced to turn back after he developed frostbite on his big right toe. “I made it above 6,200 metres elevation. I was less than 300 metres from the summit … it would have been about another 1.5 hours of walking,’’ Rhys said. “It doesn’t sound like much but when you are up there experiencing treacherous conditions it may as well have been miles away.” Rhys, who undertook nine months of intense training – in between his shifts at Chermside Ambulance Station – to climb Nepal’s highest trekking mountain, said it was devastating not to make it to the summit as he had been feeling so strong apart from the frostbite.

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Summer 2017–18