When Joe Malone first heard the words “palliative care,” he and his wife Irene thought it meant one thing: the end of the road.
Joe, a long-time Wodonga resident, was first diagnosed with cancer in 1999. Almost 20 years later, it recurred in his liver and, another two years later, in his lungs. By 2025, Joe’s cancer had reached Stage 4.
“As the cancer progressed, we kept hearing it from specialists ‘Have you made contact with palliative care?’” Joe recalled. “And I didn’t want to hear about it.”
Then, a radiologist took the time to explain what palliative care really meant and Joe’s perspective shifted.
“He said, ‘I think you’ve got the wrong idea about palliative care. It’s not about end of life – it’s about helping you progress through life. To give you the best opportunity to enjoy what time you have left.’ That changed everything,” Joe said.
For Irene, it was also a turning point.
“Palliative care helps me understand and prepare for what’s coming, and all the medications and timing,” she said. “If anything goes wrong, they’re my back up.”
Angela Cummins, Registered Nurse Palliative Care at Albury Wodonga Health, said Joe and Irene’s first reaction was a common one.
“Slowly but surely, we are moving to the opinion that palliative care is not only the end of life, but focuses on improving the patient’s quality of life, supporting the carer/s and balancing the patient’s dignity of risk with personal safety,” she said.
“Sure, we talk about death and the importance of Advance Care Planning – it’s really important to have these conversations early so we know people’s wishes. Then we can move on to the more fruitful discussions around what’s most important to them, and how we can support them best.”
Asking the big question
Joe said palliative care was person-centred care.
“It always comes back to me and my decisions: ‘What do you want to do?’”
On one particularly tough day, Angela asked him exactly that: What do you want to do?
For Joe, that question sparked a dream he’d tucked away.
“I thought it was outrageous. I have Stage 4 cancer, people will say I’m stupid,” Joe said.
But his answer was simple: “I want to do the Nullarbor.”
Instead of dismissing it, Angela told him to start planning.
“I had travelled across the Nullarbor myself quite a few times so this bolstered the excitement and drive to support Joe and Irene, along with their friends to make the trip,” Angela said. “What’s the worst that could happen? The planning is just as fun as the doing, so I thought encouraging Joe to at least start the planning might prove to be a great distraction from his health worries.”
The Palliative Care Team along with Joe and Irene considered and talked openly about what could happen and couldn’t identify a reason why they couldn’t give it a go.
“Supporting our patients to achieve their goals, be it a road trip or holiday like Joe’s, or as simple and just as meaningful as sitting on the back deck with their family in the sunshine; this is genuinely what it’s all about – supporting the patients to live well as long as possible and encourage them to focus on what really matters and how they choose to spend the time they have.”
Making the impossible possible
On 22 April 2025, Joe and Irene set off on a 9,000km return journey across the Nullarbor, travelling for 25 days with Irene’s brother, sister and their partners.
The trip wasn’t without its hurdles. On the night they were meant to leave, Joe was in hospital with kidney stones. At 9pm, test results came back, and they were clear enough to travel.
“The doctor said, ‘if there’s something serious, we’ll call you.’ So, we were ready to go the next morning.”
The AWH Palliative Care Team’s support made all the difference, giving Joe and Irene the confidence they needed to make the long trip. The team mapped out medical facilities along the route with accurate, up-to-date information, rather than something pulled from Google. They provided a clear medication plan and a folder of Joe’s medical information, so all he had to do at a hospital was hand it over.
“One of the doctors told me, ‘I wish everybody had that’,” Joe said. “We would have been in more strife without it. The team helped us not to have to worry.”
More than medicine
For Joe, palliative care wasn’t just about managing symptoms – it was about making memories.
“It’s not a death notice, it’s a quality-of-life notice,” he said. “The team becomes your extended family, there when you need them.”
And it wasn’t just about him – it was about Irene too.
“As the patient, it was imperative to involve palliative care for my partner, so she doesn’t have to face it alone,” Joe said. “We always concentrate on the person who’s sick, not the person who isn’t. But they’re going through it hard, if not harder, than the person who’s dying.”
Irene said the Palliative Care Team was like an extended family.
“They’re easy to talk to. They treated us like their family.”
Angela said patients and families often valued this sense of connection most of all.
“People are often surprised when they meet us, because they expect ‘doom and gloom’, but really, it’s about maintaining autonomy and agency throughout their experience with palliative care,” she said.
Joe died peacefully on 9 July 2025, surrounded by his loved ones. His Nullarbor trip was more than a tick on a bucket list – it was proof that with the right support, even life’s toughest challenges can be met with courage, adventure, and joy.
He left some parting advice to others facing a serious illness: “The impossible can happen – it’s not impossible until you give up.”
Watch Joe’s story here
Find out more about palliative care