Allansford sprintcar driver Tim Van Ginneken's trip to hell and back

The sprintcar driver was racing in Darwin in August 2022 when he started suffering severe stomach pain, something he had never experienced before.

He also discovered a lump in his testicle and was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Mr Van Ginneken had the lump removed and in November he told The Standard he had been given a clear bill of health.

"(They'll) keep an eye on a few things but at the moment we've dodged a bullet I think," Van Ginneken said at the time.

However, another shock was still to come.

In December, he received a call from his doctor, who told him the cancer had spread to a lymph node in his back and to his lung.

"I had just been through a low time, then the highest of highs and then I was brought down to the lowest of lows," Mr Van Ginneken said.

His doctor told him he had to undergo 12 weeks of chemotherapy.

Mr Van Ginneken said this period was "brutal".

He felt unwell and experienced severe fatigue.

Mr Van Ginneken said it was a difficult time for his wife Brony, who was still working and caring for their two children, Chase, 10, and Lexi, 7.

"I had no energy whatsoever," Mr Van Ginneken said.

"If I dropped my drink bottle while I was lying on the couch at home, it would stay there until Brony got home from work."

Mr Van Ginneken said as the treatment neared completion, he contemplated not finishing it.

"I didn't want to go," he said.

On the last day Mr Van Ginneken said he wasn't going in for treatment.

But Chase was not having a bar of that.

"He had overheard me the day before saying I didn't want to go and he said 'Dad, you've got to go'.

"He tugged at the heartstrings and I got out of bed and went."

Mr Van Ginneken said his treatment finished at Easter.

However, he had a long, stressful wait to see if it had worked.

Earlier this month - for the second time - he was given the all clear.

"It felt like a pack of bricks had been unloaded off my back," Mr Van Ginneken said.

He said the health scare had made him change his outlook on life.

The family is enjoying a trip they had planned before he got sick.

They hooked up a caravan and travelled to the Mundi Mundi Bash near Broken Hill and they're now in Darwin.

Mr Van Ginneken said the family had attended the Chariots of Thunder Sprintcar meet on the weekend.

They will soon head on to Western Australia and plan to return to Warrnambool before Christmas.

Mr Van Ginneken said he felt lucky to have been given a second chance.

"I feel very blessed," he said.

"If I had left the lump a bit longer it could have been a lot worse."

He implored people to take their health seriously and not ignore warning signs.

He said before his diagnosis, he was blase about his health.

"I away thought 'that will never happen to me'."

Mr Van Ginneken said he missed driving sprintcars.

He said he hoped to drive again but at the moment he still suffered extreme fatigue.

Mr Van Ginneken also experiences pins and needles in his feet and cannot stand for long periods of time.

"My brain says 'yes I want to drive again, but my body and wife say no'," Mr Van Ginneken said.

However, he will likely become his son's biggest support.

Chase has started driving quarter midgets.

Mr Van Ginneken said he would reassess whether he would get behind the wheel of the sprintcar his brother Simon is keeping ship-shape for when the family returns to Warrnambool.

"I'll reassess then and maybe will give someone else a run in it if I can't," he said.

Mr Van Ginneken encouraged people to get regular health checks and support the Cancer Foundation on Daffodil Day.

The fund-raiser falls on Thursday, August 31, 2023.

It's the 37^th year Daffodil Day has been held.

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