But for the past seven weeks it's been the inside of units near Barwon Health, while Mike has undergone chemotherapy for squamous cell cancer in his neck, that helped the Gnotuk couple keep their resilient and positive outlook.

Mike, a former Ecklin South dairy farmer, discovered a lump on his neck while shaving this year and tests later confirmed it was cancerous.

"When the doctor first said it was cancer I said 'is the prognosis good or bad? Because I will go and buy a Mustang and go for a trip if it's bad. I'm not going to go around sulking'," Mike said.

"The doctor said 'the prognosis is good and I can throw the kitchen sink at it.' So I said, 'right, let's get into it'."

It's not the first brush with cancer the family has had.

Doctors diagnosed Dawn with lymphoma cancer 12 years ago, which returned a second time in recent years and to the family's relief went into remission again 18 months ago.

The couple emigrated from New Zealand about 16 years ago shortly after Mike's mother and Dawn's father both died of cancer.

But after seeing the disease take loved ones, the family has kept a positive outlook, even when Mike endured burns on his neck from radiation treatment.

"We chose to work seven days a week for much of our life and we had got to this stage of life where we thought it's our turn to enjoy," Mike said.

"For this to happen we felt a little bit sorry for a stage but at the end of the day it didn't take us long to see people had it worse than us.

"My wife and I are positive type of people, and we surround ourselves with positive people.

"Our goal is to get away and get a holiday."

Mike said he had to undergo treatment outside of Warrnambool because of the location of the cancer he had, while Dawn was able to undergo half of her treatment in Warrnambool.

The Ba-Lee Lodges the couple are staying at were upgraded thanks to $188,554 from Dry July.

Mike said his son partook in Dry July in the past and he was glad to benefit from one of the fundraising initiatives.

"It's quite good to see where the money is going," he said.

"With the COVID situation Dawn isn't able to come in with me while I'm getting my treatment.

"So she's able to stay somewhere comfortable in the accommodation.

"Because of the accommodation I was still able to do computer work for my job.

"It's fantastic. It's basically a home away from home."

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