Red Symons recounts "the most awful day in my life”
<p>It’s every parent’s worst nightmare, and the last thing any family wants to go through. But unfortunately for Red Symons and his family, they were faced with the tragic prospect of losing their son, as Samuel Symons was told he suffered from a brain haemorrhage during what Red describes as “the first, most awful” moment of his life.</p>
<p>That was early on in Samuel’s life, and sadly, there were many more tough moments to come with last week being the worst.</p>
<p>The TV and radio personality put his son to rest as he said his final goodbyes last week. Samuel, who passed away at age 27, was diagnosed with a recurring brain tumour when he was only four years old.</p>
<p>ABC’s <em>Australian Story</em> on Monday night dedicated an episode on Samuel’s inspiring outlook on life, and how, even with all the pain and suffering, he went from a courageous young boy to a strong-willed man.</p>
<p>The episode featured an interview with Samuel himself, where he said he was “busy trying to stay alive and keep living.”</p>
<p>The aired footage was shot before Samuel’s death, and showed an emotional Red, looking like every other father who has seen their child go through turmoil.</p>
<p>Speaking about the moment he and his wife Elly found out about Samuel’s illness, Red said that after the pair had two “little bouncing healthy boys” that “not in a million years” did they imagine what their life would turn into.</p>
<p>It all happened when Samuel went off to kindergarten, a regular routine for the young boy at the time.</p>
<p>It was then that the phone rang and Red was told that Samuel wasn’t feeling well, and he could barely open his eyes.</p>
<p>The worried parents assumed that if he was going to pass, it would have been at that moment.</p>
<p>But Samuel was a true miracle child, as doctors believed that even after surgery and chemotherapy, there was a very small chance that he would live.</p>
<p>“It was the first, most awful moment of my life,” said Red.</p>
<p>“I can remember calling my father in tears and saying, ‘He has to have brain surgery. He’s four years old.’”</p>
<p>“Just that. It’s … it’s still too awful to contemplate, so I don’t.”</p>
<p><em>Australian Story</em> had previously aired an episode before Samuel’s passing, where it showed Red recalling the exact moment he was told that Samuel required further treatment as the tumour was growing by the day.</p>
<p>“I contemplated the notion that perhaps we should ‘let him go’, was the expression,” he said.</p>
<p>“I guess I sort of meant we should let go, as much as let him go.</p>
<p>“Maybe he will survive this, maybe he will die. Maybe that is a better option than performing this treatment. We wouldn’t have acted on it, didn’t act on it, but I wondered.”</p>
<p>Every year, when Samuel’s birthday came around it was never brushed off as just another occasion, as the family considered themselves lucky for being able to spend another year with him.</p>
<p>At the age of seven, Samuel was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Then when he was in Year 10, another tumour was discovered after a missed thyroid cancer diagnosis.</p>
<p>When he reached Year 12, Samuel and his family considered it to be a major milestone.</p>
<p>“For me, Year 12 wasn’t as daunting as it loomed for lots of other people,” Samuel told <em>Australian Story</em>.</p>
<p>“I was much more relaxed about it. I still have thyroid cancer and I still have a brain tumour in my head, which … you know, is a little bit off-putting.</p>
<p>“It’s like one of those circular novels where you think you’re getting to the end of a chapter or the end of the book, and it’s still as inconclusive and as circular as it was at the start of the book.”</p>
<p>For Samuel, being happy was the main goal throughout his life.</p>
<p>“I really like just living, because I really find it’s just much more fun in life as you go through it – just be happy, ‘cause if you’re just not happy, you’re just not going to live,” he said on his 18<sup>th</sup> birthday.</p>
<p>“I think after being so close to death that I could give it a little peck on the cheek, even then I don’t tend to think about it or never have really thought about it so much, ‘cause I was too busy trying to stay alive and keep living.</p>
<p>“I really just didn’t care about death, and never have and never will.”</p>
<p>According to Elly, Samuel always said to her that his focus was to go through life making sure the people around him were happy.</p>
<p>“And I think that is really something that we should all be striving for and that’s what we will be doing as his family,” she said.</p>
