The father of a four-year-old son has less than two weeks to raise money for an emergency surgery to remove a five centimetre tumour from his kidney.
Shakir Pichler, 57, was moving fake grass in the backyard of his Perth home last month when he began experiencing intense back pain.
'I went to the doctor after it didn't go away for about a week, which was a bit unusual,' Mr Pichler told Daily Mail Australia.
After going for multiple scans and tests, doctors discovered the 57-year-old had a large cancerous tumour in his right kidney.
'It's been crazy, life can just change in a second,' he said. 'It's just so bizarre how those things happen. If I hadn't have moved that massive roll of play grass and strained my back, I'd just be going on my merry way with a tumour in my kidney.'
Mr Pichler was referred to WA's public health system but was warned he would have to wait up to three months before his kidney could be removed.
As the tumour is considered large and has the potential to grow quickly, the Aussie dad has booked in with a private practice to complete the surgery.
'If it was just me, I would have just stuck it out in the public system and gone along for the ride,' he said. 'But I've got a four-year-old boy - it's not just me I have to think about. St's different when you're a parent.'
Mr Pichler is due to go for his surgery on December 18 but does not have private health insurance or enough savings to cover the upfront costs.
'Our friends were asking if they could help us out or told us to make a GoFundMe but I was just too proud,' he said. 'We're close to being able to afford the surgery but there's all the aftercare and loss of income. My wife's a teacher and she'll probably have to take some time off. Then there's all the other incidentals you just don't think of.'
A GoFundMe has since raised almost $15,000 with Mr Pichler saying one positive from the experience is the care shown by his friends, family and complete strangers.
'It's kind of opened my eyes to the kindness and love that you sort of forget exists during your day-to-day life,' he said. 'It just didn't feel right at first, because I thought "I could have gone public - why should I go private when I haven't got private health insurance?" But the reason is to be here for my son as he grows up and give me the best chance of doing that.'
The operation, called a radical nephrectomy, will see Mr Pichler's entire kidney removed.
'We could do a removal of just the tumour, leaving a partial kidney, but then you've always got that chance of there being cancerous cells somewhere inside that kidney,' he said. 'So I'll just be one-kidney dude.' It seems like most people live pretty normal lives after this procedure and it doesn't change your life expectancy at all."