Feature Profiles
12 January, 2026
SUMMER READING - ROWAN’S JOURNEY THROUGH CANCER
FROM TRACTOR TO TREATMENT: How a community rallied
RESTING moments are perhaps not in the DNA of Durham Ox farmer Rowan Broad.
There’s still been crops to sow, hay to harvest and daughter to watch on the netball court. Or machinery to collect from being serviced in Echuca.
“I was on the tractor until 5am one morning ... then off to Bendigo for treatment,” said the grinning 52-year-old sitting at the kitchen table last Friday.
He and wife Chelsea were talking about Rowan’s journey over the past 18 months after a Christmas 2023 phone call from the doctor told him there would be a visit to an oncologist.
“I’d been crook during the football and netball finals, had aches and pains. And there was this lump in the groin that had grown from 30mm to 70mm,” Rowan said.
That lump was the last part of Rowan’s health to have the full check-up. “We got the biopsy results back in mid-February - mantle cell lymphoma,” said Chelsea.
If the timing of that Christmas week phone call was difficult - during harvest - things were no different two months later with 430 maiden young ewes in the paddocks and a new tractor and header purchased.
Suddenly, there were the trips to Bendigo and Melbourne for chemotherapy - six hours of treatment over 12 hours.
“Before every session, and there were six, I had to do a physical - my balance, my writing and walking a straight line were tested,” said Rowan. “And all the blood tests ... and then came the stem cell treatment with tubes in my arms and chest.”
Earlier last week, Rowan shared his journey with members of the Loddon Vale Fire Brigade at the awards dinner.
The brigade lieutenant told how he had struggled to keep down food, and water too, during treatment. He later admitted there was relief with a cocaine mouthwash “giving instant relief and chewing ice”.
Chelsea says: “He was hoping to see the kids play in the grand final last year but every time his temperature hit 38 degrees it was straight off to the hospital emergency department. That weekend he was 39.5 and sweating profusely .”
Hospital stays did provide some lighter moments throughout 2024 for Rowan. His arm had to be dressed regularly by nurses and they had a different technique to local district nurse and fellow fire brigade member Rosie Bear.
“One weekend we did a video for Rosie to see how it was done!” Rowan said.
Working from home for much of last year, Chelsea said it was not unusual to find Rowan out and about instead of resting.
But that was perhaps unsurprising for the farmer who had been netball operations manager for the Pyramid Hill club and a regular with other locals Bruce Moon and Barry Dingwall to play in the AFL Masters competition in Bali.
Rowan said it was Bruce who quickly organised neighbours to keep the farm ticking over when cancer treatment meant trips and stays in Bendigo and Melbourne.
The support of the district flowed fast. “Our freezer was chockers,” said Chelsea. “I would be at hockey training in Boort, return to the car there was all this food. People were wonderful.”
The Pyramid Hill and Boort football, netball and hockey clubs raised thousands of dollars to support Rowan, Chelsea and children Jordan, Imogen, Kaitlin who was in Year 12 last year, Tristan and Lily.
Imogen helped organise a head-shave night. One of the first to have locks lopped was Bruce Moon.
Rowan admits that life was a bit emotional when cancer treatment started.
“I was home on my own one day after the first chemo, rubbed my head and there was a handful of hair,” he said.
Doctors have told Rowan that detection of mantle cell lymphoma in his early 50s was better than later in life. “If I had been 10 years older, things would not be really good. They say in Bendigo there are only one or two people a year diagnosed with this.”
Rowan said family and mates have been his inspiration in the journey. Chelsea adds: “We having been bringing everyone along on the ride, I think.”
It takes Rowan a few minutes longer to get in and out of the tractor cab and thoughts of kicking a football in Bali are off the radar.
He still played tennis though in Robinvale at Easter. “Pulled up pretty good.”
“A bit when like when I was having high doses of chemo - I felt like Superman,” Rowan said.
“I’m still off to Bendigo every three months for maintenance.
“And we’ll get the farm in order over the next few years, debt down, stock numbers right.”