Rob Hurst

So it's been quite sobering to see that some of the best Australian musicians that we have can't perform because there's a lot more to being a professional musician than simply the skill on your instrument.

So this was really out of the blue.

By this time I'd left Mossman Primary and I'd got a scholarship to Sydney Grammar, where my father and grandfather had both had gone.

And I was actually really enjoying the first year.

I'd made new friends.

And then bingo, halfway through the year, I started to get these repeated pains at night in my right leg.

And Mum and Dad were going, oh, you know, it's just growing pains, and don't worry about it.

And eventually I said, no, actually, this is really keeping me awake.

I can't sleep.

So they took me to North Shore, and within 24 hours I was admitted.

It turns out I had a benign cancer of the right femur, something called eosinophilic granuloma.

It's like a bone cancer which gradually eats its way in, and so they weren't sure whether when I was admitted I was going to lose that leg.

which would have been a bit of a problem later on because that's my kick drum league.

I would have had to swap.

But fortunately, because it was a benign cancer, they were able to scrape out all the infection and then sew it up, and I spent about three months in the children's ward at Royal North Shore Hospital, falling in love with all the nurses and, you know, I just...

Well, there was a fellow in there.

He became a good friend.

He was coming in and out all the time.

And I realised later on he was a haemophiliac.

So he was constantly coming in with bruises and things and needed treatment.