Border Mail tributes Greg Naylor

The Border Mail have today produced a tribute article to Greg – read it here

This completes a trilogy of articles from the Border Mail about Greg’s journey with cancer and his blog. The family thanks the team at the Border Mail for their respectful coverage of his story.

The original article can be viewed here – My fight.com.

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HERE IS THE TEXT FROM TODAY’S ARTICLE BY ANTHONY BUNN:

Blogger dies after public battle

A GRANDFATHER who used an internet blog to chronicle his four-year fight against prostate cancer has died.

Greg Naylor succumbed to the disease at Benalla hospital after having given regular insights into his plight on Greg’s Legacy, a blog described as “specialising in the human experience of living with prostate cancer — warts and all”.

“The blogging came naturally. It helped me keep going, it has helped tackle this thing head on,” Mr Naylor told The Border Mail in March.

His son David Naylor said yesterday his father had remained at his Euroa home, using bottled oxygen to help his breathing for the last three months, before he went to Benalla hospital last Monday and died about 5.30pm that day.

At the time of his diagnosis in 2008, Mr Naylor was given six months to live but he fought, reaching remission before surviving a number of near-fatal episodes to mark his 70th birthday in June.

“He’s had a resilience and there was something about him that meant he wouldn’t give up,” David Naylor said.

“In April this year he was sick and we literally went and said our goodbyes and he lived on.”

David Naylor said his father would hope the legacy of his blog would be to encourage terminally-ill patients to question their treatment.

“He respected the medical system but he felt it was a bit disempowering and he felt he empowered himself on the net, he was able to look for plan Bs and plan Cs,” Mr Naylor said.

“In the end his doctor was a straight talker but he found other doctors careful in what they would say.”

Mr Naylor said his father had used the blog as a catalyst to discuss experiences.

“The blog helped legitimise his journey and helped him talk about it openly,” he said.

“Particularly for a man of his era, they are very stoic and find it hard to talk about death and what they are going through.”

Greg Naylor was farewelled at a funeral at Euroa on Friday with one of the mourners Lee Gallagher, a prostate cancer sufferer from Queensland who came to know the former King Valley resident through his blog.

Mr Naylor is survived his wife Pauline, children David, Lisa and Anthea and seven grandchildren.