Dad remains strong as family faces difficult times again

Any man can be a father, but it takes someone a little bit special to be a dad.

Peter Turner is a name heard a lot in local media over the past three years after his teenage daughter Suzy began her battle with cancer.

Through the ups, downs and in-betweens, Peter has been the rock keeping his family grounded.

From the outside, Peter looks like your everyday Aussie bloke.

He works for GMA Garnet, rides motorbikes, has tattoos, drinks beer, cracks jokes and has a very large, fuzzy beard.

But get him talking about his five children and you can see him melt right before your eyes.

He has three sons and two daughters with his wife Lynne — a woman he says he could not be luckier to have.

“Compared to Lynne, you could throw me away any day,” he said.

“She’s such a remarkable lady and is just the number one mum.”

He sees a lot of Lynne’s and his own character in their children — personalities you can easily tell have made him proud.

“I’m a bloody top bloke too ya know, so hopefully they got a bit of that in them,” he said.

“Thankfully I can see so much of Lynne in all of the kids, especially in our girls.

“But with the boys, one of the kids, Kelvin, was our big sporting superstar at school so if anybody wants to say he got that from me, I’ll claim it.”

One thing the five did definitely inherit from their parents is their gutsy spirit in the face of hardship, something the Turner family unfortunately knows all too well.

The pair’s youngest daughter, Suzy, lost her leg to cancer at age 17 and has now begun treatment for tumours found in her lungs.

Though Peter admits it was a kick in the guts to go through it again, he has no doubts that as a family, they’ll get through it with a smile.

“I’m not going to lie, it was hard to hear that she has to go through this all again, but if anyone can do it, it’s my girl, she’s always been a fiery little bugger,” he said.

“I remember the night we found out, I was sitting outside hating the world and to make matters worse, I’d also just run out of beer.

“Then I posted a gofundme page to help with the cost of her treatments and within minutes of starting it up, we had donations rolling in.

“The idea we had so many people behind us really helped and it goes to show good things will keep happening even when it gets a bit tough.

“We’re a normal family and Suzy has never lost her smile or her character through any of this and she never will.

“That kid is a tough cookie and she’ll keep the rest of us smiling the whole way.”

The family’s gofundme page is still running and anyone wishing to donate can visit the site at www.gofundme.com/olr76w