Vanessa Hall  
Editor 

FOR 45 YEARS, Peregian Beach was home to Lee Elson and it was where he surfed, built his career and shared his life with his wife Susan and three sons.

Lee was entrenched in the local region having moved from the Gold Coast with his siblings in 1976 when his hotelier parents purchased the iconic SurfAir at Marcoola.

Lee loved the ocean and surfing, especially with his boys and many of his happiest memories were spent in the blue room until his life was cruelly cut short in April of this year to the beast which is pancreatic cancer.

Lee was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer on October 10 last year and just six months later on April 10, 62-year-old Lee passed away leaving wife Susan and their sons Ry 19, Ari  17, and Koa 14, heartbroken.

“He was my life partner, best friend and the person I had built my life with for the last 34 years,” Susan said.

“He was happiest when we were together as a family and I will always remember him for his unique sense of humour, the way he could make us laugh and the happiness and joy a good surf brought him, especially when he was sharing it with our boys.”

For Susan, those memories are now precious.

The couple met in the early 1990s, when Lee was running Noosa Signs in Noosaville and Susan was working next door in her father’s engineering business.

Lee was an old-school signwriter, an original “brushy”, who learnt the trade by hand with a paintbrush, but it was his role as a father that meant the most.

“He was an incredibly devoted dad and always put the boys first,” Susan said.

“He introduced them to surfing from a young age and loved spending time in the water with them. They were his absolute world.”

The family is now trying to understand “how” and “why” their beloved dad and husband is now not here.

Lee was fit, healthy, and had no major health issues. He did not smoke or drink and had no reason to believe anything was seriously wrong.

It was only around two weeks before his diagnosis that he experienced upper abdominal pain. Susan recounted his pain as a dull ache in the upper abdomen, under his ribs.

He had previously taken some Nurofen and thought that could have been the culprit but by the time he went to a doctor and had a scan, the cancer had already spread.

“That is one of the most confronting things about this type of cancer, there can be very few, if any, noticeable symptoms in the early stages,” Susan said.

“You basically can’t win with this one – it is a very aggressive, relentless and cruel disease.”

For Susan and the boys, watching someone they loved deteriorate so quickly was devastating.

“You just feel so helpless,” she said.

Funding for research is vital
The family is now supporting Dare to Hope, a charity dedicated to raising awareness of pancreatic cancer and funding research into earlier detection and better treatments.

The charity was founded by Cherie and Paul Deer after Paul was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2020. Paul, who had played AFL for Susan’s team Hawthorn, died from the disease in 2022, leaving behind his wife and four children. Four months later, Cherie also lost her father to pancreatic cancer.

Susan said Lee’s diagnosis made the need for research impossible to ignore.

“More than 13 Australians are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each day, while someone dies from the disease every two hours.”

Cancer Australia stats cite pancreatic cancer as Australia’s third-deadliest cancer with a five-year survival rate of just 14 per cent and key risks are smoking, obesity, family history, and diabetes, and there is no standard early detection test available.

“Life expectancy for this type of cancer has barely changed in 40 years,” Susan said.

“A pancreatic cancer diagnosis is basically a death sentence, and like Lee, many patients are being told by their doctors to prepare for palliative care not long after their initial diagnosis.”

For Susan, supporting Dare to Hope is about turning an unbearable loss into something that might help another family.

Susan is particularly drawn to the charity’s focus on pancreatic cancer and its commitment to research. Dare to Hope is volunteer-led, with 93 cents out of every dollar donated going directly to research.

“For me, supporting this charity means giving hope to families and hope that one day they can be spared having to experience what our family has.”

Please visit Lee’s tribute page and donate if you can at – https://www.daretohope.com.au/fundraisers/susanelson/in-memory-of-lee-elson