Following brain surgery to remove a tumour in Sydney on Wednesday, South Launceston cricketer Johnathan Marsden is in good spirits.
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Walking, talking and uncompromised, the 17-year-old was operated on by neurosurgeon Charlie Teo following a rapid growth in the past few months.
"Charlie rang me a couple of hours ago and said it was quite a difficult surgery because there was a blood vessel running through the tumour and he'd never seen anything like it before," Johnathan's father, Stuart said.
"They cut out what they could cut out and they burnt as much as they could and hoping that they've killed it."
Marsden was living a standard and healthy life, training at a state level for both cricket and football before a seizure on his sister Kirra's 18th birthday sent shockwaves through the family.
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A slow-growing tumour was then diagnosed until a game of football earlier this season saw a rapid increase in seizures and the rate of which the tumour was growing accelerated dramatically, growing over two-millimetres in just three weeks.
Set to return to NSW in six weeks for an MRI and biopsies, Stuart and the Marsden family are extremely thankful for the support after a Go Fund Me page raised over $70,000 and a trivia night, held on Friday, sold more than160 tickets.
"We are just that thankful for the community for getting us up here. It could be a completely different story if we didn't get here so we will see in six weeks' time.
"We will get some results in a couple of weeks, get a biopsy and a clearer response as to how it all went."
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