Episode 52 – Ren Pedersen (Part 1): Pain Into Purpose

Episode 52 – Ren Pedersen (Part 1): Pain Into Purpose

In this deeply moving episode of Who Is Your Hero, Buzz sits down with Ren Pedersen at the C-Bar in Townsville for one of the most powerful conversations yet.

Ren is many things — a Burdekin local, a crane driver, a father, and a man who has lived through every parent’s worst nightmare. After losing his young daughter Amy to DIPG, one of the most aggressive childhood brain cancers, Ren made a promise that would change the course of his life forever.

Instead of retreating into grief, he turned pain into purpose.

In Part 1, Ren opens up about his early life growing up in the Burdekin, the values that shaped him, the raw reality of hearing the diagnosis no parent should ever hear, and the emotional toll that childhood cancer takes on a family. This is not just a story of heartbreak — it is a story of grit, loyalty, love, and a father’s refusal to let tragedy be the final word.

This episode is honest, human, and incredibly important.

In this episode, we cover:

• Growing up in the Burdekin and small-town values
• Family, loyalty, and the people who shape us
• The devastating diagnosis of DIPG
• Amy’s battle and the reality of childhood brain cancer
• The emotional toll on parents, siblings, marriage, and family life
• Why hope still matters, even in the darkest moments
• The early seeds of what would become Ren’s mission

Ren’s story is one of unimaginable pain — but also unbelievable strength.

This is Part 1 of a conversation that will stay with you.

🎙️ Listen now and share this episode with someone who needs a reminder that even in the darkest chapters, purpose can still rise.

#WhoIsYourHero #RenPedersen #PainIntoPurpose #DIPG #ChildhoodCancerAwareness #Townsville #PodcastAustralia #Resilience #Hope #RealStories

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Hello ladies, welcome back to Who is a Hero? This podcast is built on one simple belief. Heroes aren't just the ones you see in the movies or the history books. Sometimes they're the everyday people who take the hardest moments life can throw at them and somehow turn that pain into something that helps others. Today's guest is exactly that. A bloke from the Burr Burdican. A father, a man who refused to let tragedy be the final chapter of his story. Ren Peterson, O A M. After losing his daughter to diffuse intrinsic hotene gloma, D-I-P-G will refer to now one of the most aggressive childhood brain cancers known, Ren made a decision. Instead of disappearing into grief, he stood up and created Wren's Million Dollar Mission. A mission to raise funds, awareness, and hope for families facing the same unimaginable fight. The Nielsen Foundation donated$250,000 to Ren's Million Dollar Mission to help fund research in DIPG. That's what happens when purpose meets courage. And today we're going to talk about grief, resilience, fatherhood, and how one man turned heartbreak into legacy that is helping children around the world. Ren Peterson, welcome, mate, to Who is Your Hero? Mate, it's a privilege. I'm a little bit embarrassed by that, but yeah, no, I'm truly privileged as I am. But uh I look at it on the other thing, whereas I'm I'm now after what happened to me, searching for everyday heroes, and uh you don't like being called that today, do you? No, mate, I I think heroes. It's an overblown sort of word. A lot of times, you know, if someone kicks a goal in the soccer match or NRL player scores and we've got heroes, make the true heroes a good people, you know, like yourself, making the world a better place, and and the people you see in the hospitals and the nursing, stuff like that. They're real heroes, you know. Yeah. I'm just a crane drop, mate. And it's it's quite interesting here. We have a bit of a chat in the prelude, and I've always got to start the podcast because we start talking about really, really good stuff. But we're sitting here at the sea bar and uh I love the ocean and looking at Magnetic Island. I must say already, the first time I've been here and the staff are absolutely amazing. Well, I fit in. I I generally get stuck at longboards, but I've never never had a look at this aspect. But looking around here, there's probably 30 to 40 people in here. Yeah. And how many stories would be out there? Exactly, mate. And you see, but great staff, um, great supporters of of myself as well, that they do a lot of good things around town now. But now it's a I'm glad you like this part. It's beautiful. Now, before we get into the heavy stuff, well, it's not gonna be that heavy, it's just gonna be a reminiscent about what you're doing. And but we'll start simple. If we were sitting at a pub in the Vertican right now having a schooner, how would you each introduce yourself to someone who's never heard of you? I'm essentially I'm just a crane driver. You just said it to me before. Essentially That's it, I'm I'm random a crane driver. So you don't disclose all the other stuff you're doing, and they prompt you or they're just your stories of you know. You hear other people stuff. You're a good listener? Oh yeah. Yeah. I hope so. So tell us up about tell us about growing up in the birdic and I know what what kind of kid were you? Um but I grew up without a dad. Um mum was a nurse, she was a a um a um dad, a maternity nurse in there. I had a very free-spirited child who was just did what it was, sort of I never ran with one particular group, I was just always a bit of a loner, but um had a um had a had a not a not a horrific bit of primary school was pretty tough under under sort of strict Catholic auspices. Never we used to cop and flocking, never seen any of that of the of the um the sexual abuse so unmercifully, but we saw a hell of a lot of stuff that that was pretty bad, like demoralizing demeaning stuff. Um went to high school at air high, just yeah, yeah, just an average student. Couldn't like to get the hell out, just play sport, but you know, you just look out the window and you just want to just waiting for the lunch bell. That's all that was a bit to gotta keep the footy. Yeah, yeah. Then later later in school, Buzz I did discover a footing. So I played footy a fair bit. Um uh and then left left town maybe in the late eighties. Um moved to Townsville and um I've reconnected with the Burdekan in the last couple of years, especially. Most and mate, you don't appreciate small town values until you leave. Yeah, and and places like like uh the Burdekan, and I guess Engham or or Charlestown would be similar, I guess. There are values there. Um but the Burdeken especially has um it acknowledges achievers and it, you know, there's there's there's certain ethics in that in that in that place that I that I have appreciated in later years. It's quite interesting because uh I don't know, do you know Benny McGlacken? He's he's yeah he's a good mate of mine, and and well, a very good him uh himself and Marie basically took me under the wing for four months while I was ill, gave me a bed and gave me some comfort and gave me some good meals to recover. But a lot of his mates are all verdicting boys. Yeah. And there is something different about a big game boy, isn't it? Mate, there is, and there there's a lot of loyalty here. There is, and you kind of don't appreciate it until you leave and come back. Yeah. Um, you know, and I I reconnect with with people I'd been to school. It was just like yesterday, you know. I was on the phone, I just made a phone call to a friend. Um, a friend answered it and I asked her, and I'm oh yeah, so you know, went from the bird of and yeah, but we chat a thought and then we just looked at it. Yeah. Like it was yesterday. Yeah. But do you find um I'll I'll go back I was born and bred in Melbourne, but I spent a lot of my win a wall. No, it wasn't too bad. Uh uh but I moved countrywise and followed mum and dad a bit. They've moved to Ballarat and down Warnerball, Grad Ocean Road, and all that, where I played a lot of my AFL fruity. And some of my mates, well, they're sort of not life's changed for me, but I haven't left their postcode. Yeah. Um it's it's quite amazing. And I'll go down and visit that who's 91 now, bless his soul. Um and they'll ring me out and say, Oh, do you want to come for a beer? I said, Well I can't really drink now, but I'll I'll come for a chat. And they go, What have you been up to? And I'll go, How long are you gonna Because their story generational? My story's like, you should have said what I got up to. It'd be simpler, you you've seen the world, you've you've passed and failed, and these guys have just played it safe. And I I had a chat to my mate Clip Ricos, who's the podcaster launch. Oh, probably in a couple of weeks, and we talked about postcodes, but they're happy.

unknown 8:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

Do you know what I mean? They're doing what they're doing. We're doing what we're doing, and you can't you you can never judge someone on based on what your dreams and goals are, so what they are. Do you know what I'm saying there? I do. But traveling too expands the mind and it's quite expands your outlook. And a lot of um um my missus is also from the from the birdicum. She's the um she's the bone village, she's almost in the birdicum. Uh hasn't travelled all that much. Um then the last five years we've been traveling a little bit, and you can see it it's a bit of an epiphany for her to travel, whereas opposed to to being in your little small town bubble again, which is fine.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

But you know, you've got to experience, and you'll in my in my experience, you you appreciate things when you do travel. You know, you might think that um I've just come back from Tupperware's in the states. Uh, what you see on TV and what the reality with the people is, it's two different things. So traveling small town mentality is fine, but uh, I urge anyone on small towns to get out and travel. You know, whether or not it's in Australia, just travel, you know, explore the boundaries. You know, I know folks from the Burdickan who've never even been past Court Douglas or past Raymond. That's just yeah. But they're they're seemingly happy. Oh, seemingly happy, and they had their count lunch at the Claymore Hotel at Navy Sunday, and that's all fine. It's all fine, but I think it it it's good for the soul to travel a bit. I think we um we talked about in the green room, I call it, which is before we come on live, that we've both had experiences in Papua New Guinea. Now it's it's quite interesting because most people you go, I I've worked in Papua New Guinea for five years, and they go, Oh wow, what was it like? But I had I said that to you, and you go, I've been there, and and in fact, uh friends of yours had the Lomano resort, I think it was, where I stayed a few times at Kimbay. They say an old adage is it takes a village to raise a kid. Now, how true is that in Papua New Guinea? Mate, it's a beautiful quase. To have to have Sing Sings performed for you. I had a trilit presented to me, like, and you sort of go, is this like do they want me stuff? But just just the beauty of the people there. Again, it's something that that we can talk about, Buzz, but until people go there and experience those those smiles with the with the red beetle nut on the thing or whatever, it's just how they're beautiful. Did you try it? I did once. So did I that went terrible, wasn't it? Didn't do it for me. Oh, it didn't do it for me. Knocked my mate off his foot. Anyway. I did. I tried their banana liqueur, that was pretty potent. What do they call that? Uh I don't know, but the beetle nut, nah. I just stuck with the SPD, yeah, and they tell you drink it in cans, take drink it in the scumbies, because as it goes along the assembly line, but take a sip down with the So um you you mentioned before that you lost your father early. Yeah, well What age was that? Uh my my dad passed away I think roughly within the year my brother passed away, but we went first. Mum and dad broke up um when I was in primary school early on. So it kind of used to catch up intermittently, but then in later years, uh there was not much contact at all. So so I just had a free childhood mate and just did my own thing. So who who your mother must have meant and saving persons? It instilled the values? We're remarried in the in the 80s, um um to a little um sitter and turner in there, and that and that was all good. Um Yeah, so I I I had a father figure there, but we're kind of not very close, I guess. He wasn't uh an overbearing sort of father, just a good guy. Just a just a punch good guy. Just that at Consumer Small Town Rock Solid Hursting that was that we were talking about before. Yeah, so yeah, I think one of the one of the um great influences in my life, my dad's a legend, right? But the blokes he hung around with were absolute legends too. He picked, he picked his friends awesomely, I would have to say. Now, as a young, like youngest of six, Down syndrome brother above me, yeah. I hated bullies. Like I I got myself into some trouble fighting, right? And protecting, protecting has been my main thing. And here I am now at 57 uh tomorrow, actually Ren, that um I've still protected people. No dad, I was gonna say happens. Yeah. Um but where I was heading there, a lot of the time I'd go to my dad's mates and tell them what I'd done before I'd tell my father. I was always going to tell my father, but I'd go to the mates, I'd go, what? And and they'd see me coming and go, What do you know this time? And I'd go, this, this, it's how I can't tell you, old man, but where I'm heading there, it's as parents, for those listening, uh, not only is your child watching you, they're watching what you're doing. Yeah. And if you can surround yourself with good people, I don't necessarily say like-minded, because once again, you're gonna have an array. But uh, I think that's very keen. And it's obvious to me sitting here with you now that in your early days your mother and and the stepfather hung around with decent people around the area. That's right. There was no it shaped you. It wasn't Yeah, mate, and there was no even though we're pretty kind of dysfunctional family, I guess. Everyone what's normal, mate? Well, that's right. But but they're always there there was there was always um yeah, core values there. Yeah. Um a lot of respect. Yeah, that's right. And one thing when I was growing up, I didn't know I just grew up. If you gave your word on something where you van shows, you said you were going to do it, or you just do it. There's no, you know, um that's one thing that I I think that was installed. Because I was sort of higher kid and I was I was a a bit of a learner, I guess. Um I would never there's black and white with what you say and do. There's no grey area. So it it actually is a fatal flaw because when my daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer, you know um 20 years later, and I promised her that I would find a cure for this thing, you know, I looked her in the eye and told her that. So that's the biggest cost that I have to bear at the moment, but um because that's a it's an effie big task. It's it's it's a far greater task than a crane driver from the booting physics. So it's quite strange, and a lot of the time this podcast, my questions lead into the next question and it's done it again. It's as if you've read my notes. But it happens. If someone from your school days was listening to this podcast right now, you got this right grid on your face. What would they say about you, you reckon? All these years I've known. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I was I was just a kid in a corner. Well, yeah. Um now you're on a mission, man, and Well, it's kind of it's kind of cool in a way. There's that there's been that much created since my daughter died. But there's charities and researchers and institutions all around the world that have stemmed from from one little girl here in Australia and um another another dad in the States called Keith Dessridge, who's who's daughter, Elena was sick um just before my daughter. So we formed this sort of coalition in America from America. Yeah. How did you find each other? Uh well back in the day, when my daughter was diagnosed, I was this old mindset. I don't even think I even knew how to use the internet. I had no social media scores, nothing. Just a crane drive. Just a crane drive. I didn't I didn't know. I coupued everything. Um, I think I was only just I don't even think I had an I might have had an email address. So I was the consumer that blue-collar bugger that we'll talk about at the pump sort of cellar.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

Well, then when my daughter was diagnosed, I was told there was she was going to die, and and that it it's it's this rare thing, and there's no one else that can help you, and no one else knows about it. Well, then I jumped on um at the uh computer at the hospital, just worked out how to use it, had someone show me how to turn it on, blah de blah. And the a guy came up in America who his daughter was um uh suffering DIPG, and his name was Keith Keith Deserich. And I reached out to Keith and found out, oh shit, I'm not the only person in the world with a child with this. So then I formed a little group. They used to be called Yahoo groups. Oh yeah, I remember that. So I started up one of these. Next thing would think maybe a little bit like doing the pock tower. So I'm getting all this like a chat sort of thing. Exactly, the Byreema. Wasn't like a live screen. So all of us, you know, it wasn't before too long we had 10, 20, 30 people on this thing, all with kids dying from this thing. So I sort of took over that. So that was the foundation backhand. That would have been 2008. So that was the first time ever in Australia that this ailment was e ever recognized. And as parents, we found out we're not the only ones here. So it was a very powerful thing back in the day um to find out you know, you're not alone. And it's a powerful thing knowing, and there'd be people listening to this podcast, you know, in challenging times, well, you're not alone. There are people out there who care, um, and just hang in there. Uh today might be a bad day. Tomorrow there's hope for Do you know the great uh uh Tim McKee, yeah, I am that that team's this up for us. I sat with him and he goes, Buzz, you're not gonna have three bad days in a row. Yeah. You can have a bad one. Yeah. But potentially tomorrow's gonna be better, but the third day, yeah, and and you you've you've just uh typified why I'm doing this podcast because you're not alone. Listen up, let's have a short break and talking about if you're thinking about cooking this week, don't. Rob and Katie at the Australian Hotel have already done the hard work. This is how the week rolls. Smash burger, crispy chips, pot of beer, Monday night, 20 bucks. Tuesdays, 400 gram rump chip salad gravy, 20 bucks. 400 grams, that's not a snack, that's a damn commitment. Wednesday, 19 bucks, pot and palmy, midweek sorted. Hump day's gone. Thursday, steak, sangarin chips, 15 bucks. Tradies office crew and anyone with taste buds, that's your lunch and dinner sorted. And Friday, the 50 cent wing ding special. Yes, 50 cents a wing, six flavours, bring you back up. And if you stay light long enough, I think you can shuck. Some oysters not. The other thing you can shuck them after four to five o'clock, I think. Sunday, Irish spice bag and a pint of Guinness. Just to get rid of the Saturday night, maybe hung over tour of the thing, 30 bucks. That's a comfortable food done, probably. Rob and Katie just aren't running specials. They're keeping Townsville fed without smashing the wallet. So get to the Aussie Hotel, support local legends, grab your mates and tell them, buzz sent you. Australian Hotel, mates looking after mates. And don't forget. And it could be any subject you pick, it can be my kidney disease, it'll be what you're fine for. It could be old mate that's just lost their dad down the road or something, but you're not alone and you you gotta reach out to people. And I think people are so busy, Ren, as we're talking these days, that they're not concerned about anyone else. And it's almost like uh bringing bringing back the old yarn again, I think, you know. Yeah, yeah. But you you go back to this thing where you said you're manny you're lured black for white. Back when you were in the Burdigen and you made a decision to do something, you couldn't cancel it because there wasn't a mobile phone. You were out in the road, you could it they brought pages in, but you could go to a telephone box and ring and I remember playing senior footy at 16 down in Melbourne, and I love my training, like I want to be better than anyone else. And I'd have to organise to finish my apprenticeship in Springvale, for those that you know Melbourne or not, and get to Mount Wavely. You know, I hadn't have a license, so I had to tee out with some older fella to pick me up at the corner and da da da da da da this amount of time to give me a little footy trainer, yeah. Otherwise I'm fucking warping. Yeah, but I had no way of cancelling. And then back in the day, if you had to ring him and you and it just turns out that he's out of that STD thing and you've only got 40 cents on you, and then oh shit, then you're looking around bottle of cash in for another 20 cents to the machine. You had to be you had to be a bit more Yeah, but I I think it made us accountable. I think it made us almost a word, yeah. Yeah, word. So let's um let's let's go back, wind it back a little bit. We've we're getting a bit advanced here. I've got all those questions coming up. That happens on this podcast. And uh so tell us about your family life before everything changed. Um before everything changed. I was just driving a c I was working for a uh uh shipping company here in Townsville. I was driving that crane. Right over there. Second from the left. Yeah. Um working there. Um then I went on to um establishing a crane business in Towersville, and on December seventeenth, two thousand and seven I got a phone call from my um wife uh at the time sort of getting home here um bub's just been diagnosed with this this tumor that they found and it was man oh man it was just we had to more or less get down to Brisbane ASAP we arrived at Brisbane Christmas time 2007 with us and um around about that time just hustling into a few little rooms and uh into one room in particular and told by the leading um kidish down there that hey your boy's gonna die there's nothing we can do and how how old was Amy was her daughter Amy Amy so she was seven um we were given a few ancillary tootons to try out anyway cut a long story short over um over the subsequent uh so that sorry Ren they basically said they can't do anything no well they were no they tried a few little things at the start buzz and then it realized and she started um uh reverting back. DG is an ugly thing mate it's not that easy to talk about because it's like um watching a child's whole body metamorphosize in the voice it's it's really ugly mate they lose their sight they lose their veins and lose their tongue they lose their body changes when they're given steroids and drugs and then they s they swell up and their skin splits we can't get the toilet it just affects everything. So in the midst of this this this hurricane I was still trying to run the business traveling to Brisbane a lot and trying to get her treatments um but I just kept getting blank looks from everyone who I approached um but we tried hard the average lifespan at the time from this disease buzz was between six and nine months now from the stuff that we fostered in the research advancements children living longer now that they live on average sort of 12, 18 months after diagnosis. So that's still a cruel cruel death it's a it's a cruel thing. But on the possible side it it it DIPG has it it's touted in in in media and say well that there's always fatal. It's not always fatal. It's a 99% fatality and you just got to hope that your child or you are in that 1% and that's what I I I I'd love to put that out there for anyone listening to don't accept you've got a terminal illness or don't accept that that that that there's no 100% in life on any level. So you've got to cling to that you've got to cling to that little thread of hope you know um which we did. So Bub lived uh um 16 months after diagnosis but then right at the end buzz she was so sick man she was so sick and I was always optimistic you know I would always be looking for little positive things in in her being that didn't happen at the end it was kind of like um how would I say I was always looking for the light at the end of the tunnel then come March 2009 I realized it wasn't a light at the end of the tunnel that was a train coming the other way so she passed away um um March 2009 and I witnessed I witnessed the very first and last words of the human being it's interesting and not on the level you're talking about but the renal doctors at the moment are trying to um put me on the kidney list and in my mind like I'm a fighter man I'll go I'll go down swinging uh I don't know the word I don't know if I like the word resilient but I'm fucking resilient if you want to and I believe if I go that steel is hard to bent if I go and say yeah put me on the list get me one I've given up and they say all this is gonna happen this is I said no I I like you just send and it's quite easy to hear it I believe I'm the 1% that's gonna be a miracle. You have to be until I'm not a miracle. People put in lotto and it's 300 million to one Well I'm never gonna win that because I don't buy a ticket. No well I'm with you but you the point is you've you you've got to be positive and and you've got to um there's always hope however minimal you know uh uh there are miracles plenty of people tried to climb Mount Everest before he redid it you know what I mean so you've just got to keep chipping away and and take risks in line take risks yeah take on un um responsible risks or like you and I you can take irresponsible risks plenty of them I tell you what I'm glad I'm how old are you? 55. I'm glad I met you now and not when you were 30 I think we could have been troubled. We probably would have needed Timmy McKee when I got my LAM I got man they got the wrong person gear. They they they know I was a rough age man like we'll talk about that later so I mean it's it's it's pretty obvious but I'd love I'd love to hit to hear it again from you like is there any other children? No. So I have an elder son who is 29 and a younger son who's 13. Okay so for people listening that are going through something or got some bad diagnosis you know be it be it any emotional disease it could be drug addiction or anything like that what does the family go through emotionally when facing something like this? The highs and lows yeah the upcomes are generally not so yeah um um in the brain cancer sphere um uh the OPG has is is a very high mortality rate and likewise marriages have a very high divorce rate it's it's nearly similar. Yeah yeah so there are a lot of challenges there um so my wife and I um um divorced a few years ago um it's a tumultuous time and especially for guys too you've got to go through and after everything else like my I had to walk away from my business um health had had significant health issues uh go through all this family court crap and all this sort of stuff that you haven't justified stuff that you never thought on earth but it gets messy angle cyclones hit and then after the cyclone things get rebuilt and I'm in the yeah I'm in a good place now I I'm with a lady who who I'm in a very sound place I've got the business um up and going again I'm back fundraising I've got families again contacting me um um appreciative of of help you know back in the day like with with your almond and you were told there's nothing nothing is nothing yeah now there are treatments and there are refining treatments and the research is happening and um if I get by bus tomorrow there's so much happening here in Australia that um um yeah this region especially Townsbell and Mill Queensland can hang its hat on because we started something very special in this city and it's from just grassroots people who who got behind this buzz to to get this gun you know that's clubs like you mentioned on your previous podcast with McClee Apex and Rotary um rotary were the very first organisation that were brave enough to throw money behind my mission you know over handshake yeah yeah yeah by brand match for I mean is that I will deliver that money and I will follow it through because I'm a man of my word I like bust. Yeah I had a similar experience dealing with rotary I when I got back I refused the um the jab so I couldn't go back to work in New Guinea and um I ended up back in Ballarat Town Colts and Danny Melbourne we got locked up for two years and I was like a caged fucking lion bruh. You can imagine telling me I never wore a mask got in a bit of trouble for that but I was with a partner there for eight years and uh fly in fly out so I don't I'd be away six weeks in home four renovating our houses we'd bite and I decided I didn't really like her living with her so I I did the bolt when Lismore flooded in 2022. Man like that was beyond comprehension how much water was in that place. But through a friend of a friend got me onto a district governor in Ballarat by the name of Kathy Rivett who was a Rotary district governor and I said Kathy I'm in Lismore this is fucked up I got the ability to build honors I've designed what I call the Northern River's Fastbox which was a glorified 20 foot shipping container that I could build in two days with Bondor panel and all that I said but these people have got nothing their whole life's just gone down the bloody ocean what can you do? Now Raw's which is the higher end of Rotary donated$150,000 to me in two weeks. Now I get a bit of a tingle and I don't know because it takes six months to get that money. Yeah and for some reason or another they believed in my wife and it you you you pinch yourself I said you're trusting me with that money to build and we built$15 in people's backyards which allowed them to come home and put the kids back at school and get back in the community. Their house was rooted and rejoining their dignities yep the kids are riding down the street and and and out of that I got the government basically said we'll give you 10 grand a unit and they never paid me. But out of that and it probably sent me sideways with with quarter million bucks but I didn't do it for any other reason to see the smile on that bloody kid's face or mum and dad getting back in into the house because I had them in motel 60 kilometers away from their town and they didn't want them to rebuild. I know it's not the story the same but it's the same feeling eh for people listening to this podcast who are doing it a little bit tough at the moment aside from from from you know therapy or drugs or whatever try and get out and do something positive for someone um whether or not it's it's full rotary or apex or lines or whatever or service don't give blood you know it's quite give blood and you'll feel better for yourself knowing you've contributed to someone else's health potentially life saving um yeah local club as mentioned on on TV see just do once a month just try and give I just think it's you know uh giving giving is empowering you know um it but it's hard it's hard but um when I have people are people scared to or what is it? But it is so simple it's that first step you know I'll tell you now you know we all have dark times I'll book centers that that cloud of of of overwhelming victory I'll book an appointment going blood and they go there and you just think well I'm giving then it's just might be selfish I don't know but if it just feels that you you're contributing something there's no money involved there's no pressure you're just giving something and it's I I don't I think more people should get especially young people watch this documentary on the um American conservation port back in the um 1920s and 1930s try and watch it there were like uh over a million children just out in America building trails uh through uh national parks replanting trees it was like a small it was not a small army a large army all around america of just um um uh proactive kids kind of like a scout movement but it was just for when was that uh in the 1920s and 30s really have a look at it there's a there's a PBS documentary and it is fascinating so yeah that's w what we're talking about you're not reinventing any wheels are we not at all no i read Nick Smith's autobiography and his years claim to fame was you know obviously the most you did smith was Australian gay bloody but you know um take calculated risks all the time don't don't take no financer evaluate don't take take calculated risks but Dick Smith also said don't be don't be afraid to copy something that's oh you know something has worked historically just copy yeah just repeat it yeah but have a go is essentially you know but give I I think if you give don't don't be stuck with the curtains down with the door shut get out and try and give I've been promoting tomorrow March nineteenth and I'm trying to get a movement going. It's not gonna be much tomorrow but I've given my birthday a a purpose now and it's uh you know I'm calling it world who is your hero day because in my mind it's gonna go global. You know if I say Townsville Who is your hero day it'll be Townsville but I've got a world and it looks big already but the whole story behind that is 19 minutes of gratitude to someone you love to tell your hero or your loved one right now tomorrow that you love them not at their eulogy. Yeah yeah to look them in the eye and say dad yeah fucking thanks or mum but if you haven't got one Ren walk down the strand get your gym gear on or the mumblers like half the buddy women do down here and go and give someone a cuddle in the street. Yeah yeah you know what I'm fantastic Doc yeah I think it's gotta work I mean it might take a bit of legs but that's my whole thing this this empathy in my life I've got now from my awakening and I'm so lucky that Danny sent me to the hospital. Yeah why did that why did I end up in Townsville which is the best rental world in Australia if not the world why why didn't I end up here you know and I mean there's such there's there's too many synergies gone and and people say why are you doing this podcast? Why aren't you worried about your health I'm going my health is really good because I'm doing this podcast I'm getting energy and hope from doing it anyway it went a bit off track there so what did what did the experience um teach you about love and family? Had the other siblings coast uh not well not well not well um I was away a lot um I may have been I don't know in months I I'm I may have been too positive too demanding like I was having a lot around all over time source treatment. Were you ever in denial and and work try to work to cover it yeah there was so much helping about time man I don't I don't I I may have been in denial may have been the Buck would Buck would Amy would come back with little positive things too you know um maybe maybe um but you know I had I had a um a bull which is my daughter and I was running to that try line and I was just trying to sidesteck a plow through whatever was coming at you. Yep so I was sort of so focused um my older son was probably shut out a little bit and you know he probably holds drugs of that but I you know I was on a life-saving sort of mission now. Yeah you had the blinkers on and you were garbage. But I did have the blinkers on and I and I and I had to you know and and you know mercifully the seas of all all that stuff is being realized today with with institutions all around Australia researching this disease. Back in the day there was nothing there was nothing kids had that scientists had had no tuners to to to investigate it. So let's let's uh ramp it up in a real positive way because that's that's been the downside of it and the strength of uh Ren Peterson but it even gets stronger and um this is where we get into the we won't say hero stuff but oh I don't know what you I don't know what you call it mate Bannon Amish I like the way you just got it I grabbed the ball and I was going to the triline. But um and then you did say earlier that you looked your daughter in the eye and said I'm gonna do something about this. And if you've made a commitment and a contract with that mate I you you're not gonna give that up to the day you fucking die but so after losing your daughter many people would understandably retreat and I get that you did the opposite I suppose it's a rhetorical question but it might be a little bit more what made you start Ren's million dollar mission well mate I I started I started up a charity that ran for about sort of um 10 years and I didn't realize and this is a simple crane driver in me I just wanted to to to get the job done I wanted to just to do the list set it up and and and tick all the boxes and that's it. After 10 years man it it's it's hard to find a cure for brain cancer. So not only was the research aspect very challenging you know the charity snowballed very quickly um I had to put a board of directors was put on a board of something then we had to put on a CEO so all of a sudden I went from essentially in the business analogy from a sole trader to a company very quickly and it was just too hard in the end. So I thought well I need to tap out from this at the time this would have been about five years ago so my marriage was was broken up it was to put very challenging um really really unhappy bad marriage business shutting down so all this stuff was happening charity was getting just too hard to manage so then I thought oh in the middle of all this I need to refocus on something so I enrolled for my commercial helicopter license as you would well the toughest thing yeah the toughest license in a turn hang your mind as you wasn't so yeah so I did it I did all that that took me a little while uh yeah so I went and got my commercial helicopter license that nearly burnt me out wow and that my friends is where we'll leave part one what a conversation what a man and what a reminder that sometimes the strongest people are not the loudest people they're the ones who have been smashed by life brought to their knees watched the unthinkable unfold right in front of them and still found a way to get back up and keep walking today you heard the early foundations of friend Peterson the Birkittam boy the crane driver the bloke who never asked a spotlight the bloke who'd probably still rather be known as just an ordinary working man. But as you've just heard there is nothing ordinary about what this man has walked through to sit beside your child in the middle of that storm to hear the words no parent should ever hear to carry hope when the world is trying to rip it out of your hands and then somehow after the dust settles after the heartbreak after the grief after the fractures in family business health and life itself to still stand there and say no this will not be the end of the story. That takes something different that takes grit that takes heart that takes a kind of love that most people will never fully understand unless they've lived it what hit me most in this Yarn Ren is that you never tried to dress yourself up as some polished untouchable hero. You kept bringing it back to the same thing I'm just a crane driver mate and maybe that's exactly why your story lands so hard. Because it proves the purpose doesn't come with a title you don't need a fancy office a university wall full of degrees or some big public profiles to make a depthness world. Sometimes the people who change everything are just ordinary blokes and ordinary women who refuse to let pain have the final say that's what this episode is about. It's about the promise of a father it's about the weight of a word it's about what happens when grief gets turned into a movement and it's about the truth that even when life is cruel beyond belief there is something in the human spirit that can rise and I know there'll be people listening right now who are battling something maybe it's sickness family breakdown grief maybe it's depression maybe it's the kind of pain you don't even have words for yet let this episode be a reminder you are not alone there are people out there carrying heavy things there are people getting up when they don't feel like getting up there are other people trying to find meaning in the mess and if friend's story shows us anything it's that even the darkest chapter still can give birth to something that helps somebody else breathe again. And let me tell you that's a powerful thought this is why we do it. We don't do this podcast in college we don't do it for fake perfection we do it for the real stuff for the stories that crack people open for the conversation that makes someone pull the car over wipe their eyes and think bloody hell maybe I can keep going too Redmate thank you thank you for your honesty thank you for your strength thank you for your vulnerability and much of thank you for trusting me and trusting this community with a story that carries so much weight so much love and so much legacy And guess what? This was only part one. And trust me when I say there's more to come. Busy part two, we go deeper into the mission, deeper into the fight, deep into what really took to turn heartbreak into impact. We'll talk more about the road forward, the work being done, the resilience it takes to keep swinging, and why Ren's journey is about so much more than survival. It's about damn service. So don't go anywhere. Make sure you follow, subscribe, share this one around, and send it to someone who needs to hear it. Because these stories matter, these conversations matter, and the people brave enough to live them and tell them, they matter too. If you want to donate to Ren's Cause, Ren's Millionaire charity, look it up. I'll have links at the bottom of this bio that you can help solve this terrible disease. This is Who is Your Hero? I'm Buzz. This has been episode 52, Ren Peterson, part one, Pain into Purpose. Stay strong, love your people, tell them while they're here. And never wait for the eulogy to say what you've been. And never wait for the eulogy to say what should have been said in life. God bless legends and hero up.

SPEAKER_02 45:37

That old wheel will roll around again. That old wheel, that old wheel is gonna roll around the sword when it doesn't hit. As they saw they were reap. Turn the other cheek and don't even. That old wheel will roll around again.

unknown 46:04

Around, around again.