Donald Vincent Swan's memory board

In March 2014 Donald Swan had an endoscopy and an advanced, localised tumour was discovered which was later diagnosed as oesophageal cancer. Life suddenly became very serious and Donald started three months of intensive simultaneous chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He underwent surgery in January 2015 however it was discovered that the cancer had already spread to his liver. He continued his chemotherapy and radiation journey for the rest of last year however the scans and test results always returned more bad news. He decided at the end of 2015 that enough was enough and he would stop all treatment and so was referred to palliative care. Donald Vincent Swan was born at St Anne’s Maternity Hospital on September 20th 1960 to parents Albert and Ellen Swan. Donald was the youngest of five children, Pat, Kath, Tom and Ron. When Donald was about 6 weeks old the family moved to Wagin where they continued to live except for a three year period when they lived in Narrogin. Donald attended Wagin District High School until year 10. His older sister Pat fondly remembers Donald being a ratbag and getting into trouble in his early teens and how he loved speedway and motorbikes. She also remembers him looking after her four daughters, Lisa, Tanya, Tracey and Jody. As the girls grew up he spent a lot of time with them, taking them out ice-skating, the movies and helping out where he could. Donald was very close to his nieces and they will give their tribute a bit later during the service. After leaving school Donald worked with his father slaughtering, worked on the railways and as a roustabout until he moved to Northam and started working as a truck driver for Milne Feeds in 1981. He moved to Perth in 1982 and worked for a number of different trucking companies serving the most consecutive years with Brambles Manford. Over the years Donald drove locally and long distance, north, south and east west. His driving experience spanned from general freight, freezer containers, over length – over width loads, explosives, cement tankers, 50 and 100 tonne floats and for a short time he had his own truck transporting cars. In 2001 Donald wanted a break from truck driving and started work at Gemco Rail where he was employed for 12 years. He started in the wheel shop, progressed to train examiner and maintainer until he moved to Melbourne with his family where Donald became leading hand and supervisor of wagon maintenance for Gemco Melbourne. He worked in this position initially on his own out of a shipping container as a makeshift office and was on call 24 hours. As the workload grew, some years later came a building and after nearly seven years in this role Donald was supervising four full-time staff. Donald was such a hard-working, committed and valued employee, Gemco purchased a house in Melbourne that he and Colleen had selected to live in. The family enjoyed nearly seven years in Melbourne, moving three times during that period and making the most of every opportunity to explore Victoria. Living in Melbourne was a very special time for Donald and Colleen and created some wonderful memories on their weekend adventures with the family. Because of some health issues Donald and his family decided to move back to Perth in December 2009 where Donald continued to work for Gemco. In 2013 Donald started working as a Road train driver delivering to Geraldton until his diagnosis in 2014. Donald met his wife Colleen in 1986 and they were married on November 14, 1987 at Kings Park. They had three children, Ricky born in 1990, Luke in 1997 and Taylah in 2000. Donald was a devoted father and very hands on, always happy to change nappies, bath and help feed the kids. He really enjoyed cooking and did most of the cooking for the family if he was home from work. He was particularly good at making sausage rolls and these became quite famous amongst friends and family. As the kids got older, Donald and Colleen spent about 18 years in total taking Ricky and Luke to footy practise and weekend games juggling with dance classes for Taylah. Luke fondly remembers his dad always asking to be goal umpire as then he wouldn’t have to run. Taylah remembers her dad always offering lovely words of encouragement when she was nervous before going onto the floor to dance. Donald loved to be involved in or watch any sport that required a motor and speed. In his early years he loved racing limited sprint cars with his brother-in-law Ken. As long as Colleen can remember he always had a motor bike or a dirt bike or was saving money to buy one. Colleen can remember poor Donald selling his motorbike so they could go on a short honeymoon. She also remembers three years later he sold his brand new Yamaha Virago when Ricky came along. The boys also loved motorbikes and Donald had bought them both their first peewee 50 when they were 5 years old. Colleen remembers when Ricky’s brand new peewee 80 was stolen and Donald took on a second job, working at night, stacking shelves at IGA in Midland until he had enough money to buy another brand new peewee 80 for Ricky. Donald and the boys enjoyed riding their dirt bikes in Bacchus Marsh and Luke started motocross. Luke continued motocross when the family moved back to Perth and Donald took on weekend work driving a truck to help pay for the cost of motocross as the family were also building a house. But that’s the sort of Dad he was – always willing to work longer and harder to ensure his family had what they wanted. In addition to motocross, the boys enjoyed dirt bike riding on occasion in York until Donald decided he was too old to ride dirt bikes and in January 2014 purchased a brand new Harley Davidson Fatboy with a 1690 motor which was his pride and joy. He loved going for bike rides with Ricky and Luke and his brother-in-law Christian and Jason and his mates from Wagin primary school days, Alby and Neil. His last ride was in February this year with Ricky, Jason and another mate Pete when they went for a weekend to Rocky Gully where Donald caught up with some friends from his early days. He had the best time and was talking about the weekend for days afterwards and planning the next one. In 1998, always seeking out the next adventure, Donald had the idea of driving and working around Australia in a bus. He purchased a 1973 Hino ex metropolitan bus that had been renovated. The bus had a washing machine, separate sleeping areas for Ricky and Luke, a shower and a generator and behind it pulled a 4 wheel drive and 2 dirt bikes on a trailer. Donald and Colleen sold their house in Alexander Heights and lived in the bus with Ricky and Luke for 12 months before taking off on their trip around Australia in January 1999. During this trip Donald worked picking fruit and truck driving and Ricky was home schooled. However, in November, based in Kununurra, Donald stuck a knife through his hand (trying to cut frozen noodles for Colleen) severing an artery and needed to be flown to Perth for microsurgery. As Colleen had just found out she was pregnant with Taylah, the family decided to return to Perth. As Donald was not able to work for a while, both Donald and Colleen thought the trip in the bus was not the best financial decision they had made. However, given Donald’s diagnosis at such a young age it possibly turned out to be one of the best decisions and such a great experience for both Donald and Colleen. Ricky still has memories of his travels in the bus. Donald had a large family however as they all lived in different areas of WA he didn’t see them regularly. However, when he did see them, he was the life of the party, relaxed, happy and it was obvious he loved spending time with them. This was still evident only in April this year where he travelled to Manjimup to give his niece Lisa away at her wedding to Jimmy. It was extremely important for Donald that he be there and as sick as he was with his strength and determination he gave Lisa away, escorting her to the alter in a wheelchair in the rain. It was a very overwhelming moment but one that all Donald’s family and Lisa will cherish forever. In Donald’s earlier days he lived for the day, was fun-loving, loud, down to earth, and nothing was ever too much trouble for him. He was very easily pleased and he didn’t care what other people thought. Colleen fondly remembers her grandfather calling Don a ‘big brute’ when he first met Donald but conceded that he was in fact a ‘gentle giant’ once he had the pleasure of getting to know him. Donald would help anyone and he could fix anything. He was very determined, resourceful and capable and wouldn’t let anything get the better of him. Over the years he worked tirelessly on three new homes, in Alexander Heights, South Guildford and renovating the family home in Bacchus Marsh. In his last home in South Guildford which Donald and his family moved into in 2011 he, together with family members, dug holes, painted, brick-paved, built an amazing patio area with a bar and spa, did all the landscaping and reticulation. Even to the very end Donald was working around the house. In February this year Donald with Luke’s help reticulated all Colleen’s pots on the patio and rebuilt the top of the bar– with a fractured hip, which Donald didn’t know was fractured at the time. Donald hated how the pain medication made him feel so tired wanting to sleep much of the day, so he chose to take less medication and feel more pain, suffering most of the time in silence so he could still be active during the day. During his intensive chemotherapy and radiation treatment in 2014 Donald was always up at the motocross track with Luke sometimes feeling pretty sick and at Taylah’s dancing competitions, medals and watching her weekly ballroom classes. Last year, as Donald was having on-going chemo he was very restless not having worked since May the year before. His nephew Lirim, whom he also was close to has a workshop close by and encouraged Donald to come in and tinker around. Lirim purchased an old Commodore and Donald’s intention was to spend time when he felt well to do it up. Donald was sorry he was unable to finish off the car but was very grateful for the opportunity to get out of the house and spend time in the workshop, chatting to different ones. During Donald’s illness he and his family had the opportunity to travel interstate and overseas. After Donald’s chemotherapy Donald, Colleen, Luke and Taylah travelled to Brisbane and visited all the Theme Parks with a plan for some fun. In November 2014 they travelled to Ireland, Scotland, London, Paris, Italy and Dubai. Donald and his family were in Sydney to see in the 2015 new-year, watching the fireworks off the Sydney Harbour Bridge which was a very special time, something Donald really wanted to experience. In January this year, Donald, Colleen and Taylah flew to Sydney to cruise around the north island of New Zealand. This was a very difficult trip as Donald was starting to experience a lot of pain not controlled with the medication however again with strength and determination he went on a different tour, in each new port each day for five days. All these amazing experiences and loads of photographs taken have created special memories and will initiate wonderful conversations for Donald’s family for years to come. Donald’s one regret was not being able to spend time with his grandson Joel who is 3 years old. Colleen, Ricky and their family will make sure that Joel, as he gets older, learns about his grandfather and what he was like by telling him stories and showing him lots of photographs. Donald’s cancer was a very insidious disease which changed him physically, mentally and emotionally in such a short period of time. Being taken at the young age of 55 years is very tragic and Donald showed such strength and courage over the last two years until the end, only undergoing a total hip replacement less than five weeks before he passed. Donald Vincent Swan was a very special man, to many different people for many different reasons. He was incredibly supportive and his priority in life was his family. That’s how he’ll be remembered.