00:00:00
You know… 33 and I'm feeling like a 70 year old man.

00:00:08
Yeah, spent my younger days, just, you know doing what young people do I guess.

00:00:13
And then eventually, I, one of my mates went out on site with him

00:00:19
And he needed a help – bit of help and he was a stonemason

00:00:22
and I went with him, loved the job… like I said 'you know, this is great, I'd really, you know if you can get me a job.'

00:00:30
'You know, speak to your employer or what not.'

00:00:33
And eventually I got into it.

00:00:34
Was given a grinder, paper mask and, you know, start cutting and what not.

00:00:40
However, you know talking about the um… the ventilation side of things when, you know, 2006,

00:00:50
there wasn't much going on, as in, you know, like filtration, air you know clean air and what not.

00:01:00
So, you know, you'd be set up on a trek on a stool, put your pieces down, mark out cut outs,

00:01:07
polished openings, what not

00:01:09
and um, just, you know, start cutting I guess.

00:01:12
And you get out of there looking like Casper the ghost.

00:01:20
And I woke up one morning, had my eyes open, I was lying in bed – I couldn't move.

00:01:26
It was like, you know, waking up from having a operation in the hospitals.

00:01:31
You know when you wake up from the anaesthetics.

00:01:34
Yeah, you just – your eyes are open but you can't move.

00:01:37
So, I was like that and um, I eventually said to my wife:

00:01:42
'You know, can you sort of just like kick me over, push me over the side of the bed, 'cause I can't move.'

00:01:47
And then, after 10 or 15 minutes, I got to the side of the bed.

00:01:51
Went to put my socks on and I couldn't move my hands,

00:01:55
yeah, couldn't put my socks on, couldn't put shoes on, I couldn't turn taps… um – I was a mess.

00:02:02
Couldn't do anything.

00:02:03
You know, I was in tears, I was in so much pain

00:02:07
and then eventually I got admitted to hospital.

00:02:09
I went to hospital; they weren't sure what was going on.

00:02:13
They could see that my inflammation markers were all over the shop and this and that

00:02:18
and… you know, my wife's also a nurse, so.

00:02:22
You know, you're still young, I was 33 at the time,

00:02:25
didn't think much of it, but I knew I was in a lot of pain.

00:02:36
Just in the CT scans, you could see, you know, scarring, little bit of it and nodules and what not

00:02:43
so, yeah, he sent that off to another specialist.

00:02:47
He said: 'Look, I believe that its silicosis and you should stop work and not expose yourself to anymore dust and what not.'

00:02:56
And that's been the process.

00:02:58
So not only do I got silicosis, which is the lung disease, which is terminal.

00:03:03
I've got an autoimmune disease that possibly could be terminal, you know, could turn that way.

00:03:11
And I'm having those symptoms, so it's very…

00:03:14
You know, I don't try to think about it too much and what not. I just take day by day as it is and um…

00:03:21
You know just, I really hope for the best

00:03:23
'Cause I, you know, I wanna see my kids grow up and you know, see all those milestones, I guess.