And he plans to conquer that challenge as well, making it his 20th race event.

In April 2019, and completely out of the blue, Warren said he felt a little off while at friend's dinner party with wife Colleen.

Having had previous heart problems, it was a sensible decision to make a visit to the hospital on the way home. Within hours, Warren was delivered shocking news that he had cancer.

On May 6, a specialist visit confirmed Warren had stage 4 metastatic melanoma and probably had just six months to live. But there were new drugs available that would be his best shot at prolonging his time.

He had nothing to lose.

"The next few days were a bit of a blur," Warren said about receiving the news.

He and his wife Colleen have been living in Port Macquarie for over 40 years, ran a business and supported community and sporting groups. Warren has been involved with Port Macquarie Touch Football since 1980 and went on to work for NSW Touch and the Australian Touch Association as well.

He is a life member of Port Macquarie Touch and Palm Court men's squash club where has played for over four decades.

"I then met a remarkable oncologist and he confirmed my diagnosis and said normally, the best offer would six months. But he said he had two new drugs approved by the Australian Government and he could administer those.

"The first nine months was the worst it could get.

"I was on a three month course of the drugs. They worked so well my immune system started attacking my good cells as well. My liver has taken bit of a pounding, so I've gone back on to one drug for the last four months and my diagnosis a few weeks back was that all the cancer had gone."

After 11 months of immunotherapy, the cancer is no longer on his lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys.

"I'll stay on the treatment and have a scan in early June that will hopefully confirm his views."

Being fit and healthy worked in his favour but Warren pays tribute to a legion of friends and family who threw their support behind him during his treatment.

"I'm tired and I still have some of the side effects of the drugs including shortness of breath. My mouth is dry all the time which makes it difficult for sport and any exercise whatsoever," he said.

"But I've been back playing squash. It is difficult to breathe though.

"I've always been fairly determined and motivated. This really tested my motivation and then to back it up with this coronavirus thing.

"Colleen has been absolutely wonderful in the whole journey, she has been my rock and there for me every day as have my family and friends.

"One friend at squash said I'll pick you up Wednesday nights and you can watch and score games. I started doing that and felt myself getting stronger and stronger.

"All of my squash friends came up to me in those first couple of weeks and put their arm around me and asked how I was going.

"I think their involvement played an enormous role in my recovery."

On October 18, Warren has set himself a challenge to finish the 14km City 2 Surf race in Sydney. It will be the 50th anniversary of the race.

It will be his 20th fun run, backing up an outstanding effort in the year of his 70th birthday where he ran in races in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane.

At the moment, his training consists of regular walking.

"All of my doctors advised that I start off slowly. I walked for about five to six days, got real confident one day and started to shuffle a bit but realised I went too early. I've gone back to walking," he chuckled.

His daughter Lara could not be more proud of her dad.

She has set up an Everyday Hero page and will now be raising money for cancer research up until Warren stands at the starting line of October's race.

"Without this research, I would have said goodbye to dad about six months ago, so it means a lot to me that this research is happening," Lara said.

Warren will fundraise for the Cure Cancer Australia Foundation.

"I'm also thankful to the researchers for their wonderful research in discovering two new drugs to specifically battle melanoma, this treatment, administered by the wonderful Port Macquarie teams at the Highfields Thoracic and Sleep Specialists and the Mid North Coast Cancer Clinic," Warren said.

"I understand also that there is a possibility that further research on this treatment may go a long way to discovering further specific drugs to battle other forms of cancer. We can only hope and pray."

To make a donation, go to Warren's Everyday Hero page https://city2surf2020.everydayhero.com/au/warren-turner.

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