Barton resident Tony Leach has the new Australians of the Year to thank for his grey hair.
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Plus a family trip to Fiji later this year.
And his life.
As Margaret Leach said about her husband: "He wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the research that they do."
Mr Leach, a former public servant, was 52 when he was diagnosed with melanoma.
Six years later, in September 2022, he got "really scared".
During a caravan trip with his wife, Mr Leach could feel tumours on his neck.
They stopped the trip early.
There were tumours throughout his body.
"I was stage four and things were looking pretty grim," Mr Leach said.
"I honestly thought that I had less than 12 months to live."
Mr Leach was put back on an innovative immunotherapy created by two Sydney researchers.
Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer on Thursday jointly won the Australian of the Year 2024 award for their efforts, which have made advanced stage melanoma curable.
The close friends are co-medical directors of the Melanoma Institute Australia.
The institute wants to end deaths by melanoma, a disease dubbed "Australia's national cancer".
The country has the highest rate of melanoma of any nation, with one person dying from it every six hours.
Soon after being diagnosed, Mr Leach was given immunotherapy through a clinical trial pioneered by the researchers and their colleagues.
It did not work for him that first time.
After 12 months the tumours returned.
By 2022, the dosages had changed.
"He'd been right at the cutting edge," Mrs Leach explained.
Now Mr Leach is one of the lucky 50 per cent whose immunotherapy is working.
Tumours haven't come back, but there are other signs.
He has white flecks on his skin, and his dark brown hair has been leached of colour, turning it grey.
Both retired, Mr and Mrs Leach have kept busy. They have three children and five grandchildren (with one on the way).
Mrs Leach organises the Melanoma March, a family-, dog- and pram-friendly walk to be held in Canberra on March 3.
Last year, the fundraiser raised more than $20,000 for the Melanoma Institute of Australia.
A keen cycler, Mr Leach is training for the Tour de Cure, a bike ride for cancer.
"When you're going through cancer, you want something else to focus on," he said.
Last year's event was particularly special because Mr Leach met Dr Scolyer.
"I've heard about this guy Leachy, Tony Leach, a melanoma patient of ours at [the] Melanoma Institute of Australia and I'd love to meet him," Dr Scolyer says in a video posted by Tour de Cure.
Sporting a head full of brown curls, Mr Leach thanks the pathologist.
"If it wasn't for your research, I wouldn't be here," he said.
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Dr Scolyer is now using targeted immunotherapy treatment on himself, as he has stage four brain cancer.
In a speech on Thursday night, Dr Scolyer revealed his "future [is] now measured in months rather than decades".
While watching the ceremony on Thursday night, the Leaches were "ecstatic" to see Dr Scolyer and Dr Long be named Australians of the Year.
In a few weeks, Mr Leach will be able to congratulate Dr Scolyer in person at the Tour de Cure.
Thanks to his research, they will both be there.