He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and has come through the other side, and now Inverell's Michael Jorgensen is stepping up to help those who are going through a similar ordeal.
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Mr Jorgensen will participate in this year's Tour de Cure, a bike ride which aims to raise awareness and funds for cancer research.
He will take part in the Signature Tour, which is a nine day ride from Newcastle to Noosa which will travel through Inverell, as well as Tamworth, Armidale and Tenterfield on its way up north.
"I've had a cancer story myself and I'm on the positive side of that, I've got a passion for cycling and I thought this is a good opportunity to help raise some funds to help out with some financial need in drug studies," Mr Jorgensen said.
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He was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer at just 45, which he said was a "life changing experience when you first find out."
"On investigation it was deemed that it was quite a high risk of spreading so I had to have surgery and I've come out the other side of that quite fit and healthy and now I just monitor it," he said.
"Cancer doesn't care about things like bushfires and drought, it still just happens.
"I'm a pretty fit and healthy sort of guy, it gets anyone. My part of the story, I had it at quite a young age with young kids and a business and wife and family, it can rock your world pretty dramatically."
Mr Jorgensen said he was able to get through it with strong support from his family as well as great doctors and surgeons around him.
After doing a triathlon in Noosa, he met Sunrise's Mark Biretta, who is quite heavily involved with triathlon, who helped get him involved in the Tour de Cure.
He is one of 150 riders taking part in the Signature Tour, and has a goal of raising $12,000, with the overall group hoping to raise $1.1 million. He is currently sitting at about $7,000 raised.
One of the other things he wants to push through the tour, is the importance in talking and being open about their cancer experiences, particularly with males.
"I had a lot of tradies come to me when I first got diagnosed. Straight away some blokes were curious, asking 'how did you know?'," Mr Jorgensen said.
"I'm quite open to talk about it and that's why I'm happy to tell my story cause I want blokes to go, 'I need to look at this.'
"It doesn't just affect them, it's their families and everyone around them."
Mr Jorgensen said that Tour de Cure are also really "fussy" about where the money raised gets spent.
"They actually look at what drug trials are being done and what's actually going to be beneficial and then they target their spending with their donations that way," he said.
If you would like to donate to Mr Jorgensen's cause, you can do so at https://www.tourdecure.com.au/profile/?memberId=91794&tourId=1037.
He wanted to make sure people were aware that when a donation goes to him it goes straight to Tour de Cure.
He said the funding is important but he also wants to raise awareness.
"If nothing else, if people are just aware that prostate cancer is one of the highest diagnosed cancers," he said.
"Everyone talks about breast cancer, but prostate is very high and blokes don't want to talk about it. It's one of those taboo things.
"Yes I want funding, I need funding, but I also want people to be aware."