The Project host Carrie Bickmore has recounted the incredible story of how her late husband, Greg Lange, underwent awake brain surgery.
Whilst discussing the most recent viral phenomenon, a video which shows opera singer Ambroz Bajec-Lapajne performing an opera piece whilst undergoing awake brain surgery, the 34-year-old revealed that her husband went through something similar.
“My late husband Greg had brain surgery awake,” the mother-of-two told the audience on Thursday night.
“Five hours, lying there awake while he had someone operate on his brain,” Carrie said, “What they can do is phenomenal.”
“They do it because obviously in some situations they want to get the tumour out, but they don’t want to take all the good part as well,” explained the Logie winner, “Because then you won’t be able to walk, you won’t be able to talk.”
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“So they touch a little bit of the area and check, ‘Where is that?’, ‘Can you still feel your feet?’, ‘Can you still speak?’ before they take it,” she added.
“For five hours they talked about footy, he tried to set up one of the nurses with one of his mates… They have to find things to talk about to keep them talking and to keep them awake,” remarked the host.
“It would be terrifying.”
“He suffered from anxiety and I can’t imagine the feeling of lying there knowing someone is operating on your brain.”
Carrie with her late husband, Greg.
Since her untimely husband’s death in 2010, Carrie has been a huge supporter and advocate for brain cancer awareness charities, especially Beanies for Brain Cancer, which she spoke about during her Logies acceptance speech earlier this year.
“I’m going to use the two minutes that I have up here… to talk about something incredibly close to my heart. I want to talk to you about brain cancer,” Carrie said in her speech.
“In 2010, my husband Greg was one of the unlucky ones and after a long, long, long battle he died from brain cancer.”
“Over ten years I watched him suffer multiple seizures a day, lose feeling down one side of his body, saw his three-year-old push him in his wheelchair because he couldn’t walk anymore,” an emotional Carrie continued.
“He was an incredibly brave man, he was a great dad, he was a great husband, he was a great brother and he was a great friend but he shouldn’t of have to go through that.”
“Throughout his cancer journey he used to wear a lot of beanies, and that was because he was embarrassed about his scars. Beanies are cool,” the talented star quipped.
“I want to dedicate this award to anyone who is going through a really s–t time right now, anyone who is supporting someone through a really tough time right now, please believe that there will be a brighter day for you.”
Carrie has a son, Oliver, 7, with Greg and a gave birth to a daughter, Evie, with her new husband, Chris Walker, in March.
