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It's hard to believe it's a year since Terry Herbert left us.
What a tremendous, truly magnificent friend he was to us all.
Speaking for myself, I miss him every morning when I log onto my PC.
I keep expecting to see an email from him, usually a very funny joke to stick on my own 'scatological'website (as Terry described it),'Bollocks To PCa'.
I know from others here that Terry had a huge impact on their lives.
In 2005 when I as diagnosed (and with a scary prognosis) YANA was the first PCa forum I found, thank God!
The way Terry had set up the website was unique.
Those tables of initial PSA values, or T stages and Gleason scores etc were something special.
I remember seeing the names of quite a few guys diagnosed with T4 PCa and yet they were still here, five or more years later.
As I had just been told I had only 2 or 3 years left to live, seeing those names gave me a massive boost. I called my wife over to take a look at the site.
We were both filled with hope and optimism.
And of course, Terry always emailed we new guys and took interest in us. He was so kind and considerate as well as so informative.
He invested many years and thousands of hours building this site. At times the work was far too much for one person, and I was delighted when he asked me to help him out whenever a 'mountain' of tasks built up.
Before Terry left us, he had ensured the site was in the safe, and very capable hands of Mark Freedkin. Mark's professional website expertise saved Terry a load of work, time, worry and stress.
I know he was extremely happy and relaxed about his baby 'YANA', finally, during his last few years.
Terry, we miss you mate. You were one in a million, and this 'Thank You' will never be enough for us to convey our immense gratitude.
I echo George's sentiments about our good friend Terry. I read every update to the Survivor Stories, and the accolades for the work that Terry did continue to flow in. I, too, miss chatting with Terry by e-mail and Skype.
The YANA website now has 1439 Survivor Stories, with 837 stories that have been updated within the last 15 months.
Since the YANA website re-design in March of 2012, we have received over 3,300 Survivor Story updates from our members, with minimal manual intervention from me (other than correcting obvious typographic or spelling errors). I am pleased that the re-design concepts have proven themselves to be stable and reliable over these past three years, and I greatly appreciate the input and feedback from the team of men who volunteered in late 2011 when Terry asked for help.
I forwarded George's note to Anthea Herbert, so that it might give her some comfort on this first anniversary of Terry's passing.
Many thanks to everyone for the kind words. I am honored to continue Terry's great work and keep the YANA site running for many years to come.
Best Regards,
Mark Freedkin
YANA Adminstrator
Irvine, California
Thank you very much Mark and also thank you to George and all my beloved Ter's pals al over the world.....His passing is indeed a great loss to SO many people but especially to our son Matt and me who miss his strong and humour filled presence every day of our lives.......He was always such a pleasure to spend time with as he was interested in SO many things and never lost his wonderful sense of humour even into his last days........I feel immensely privileged to have spent almost 50 years with him as we had been married just on 47 years when he passed away.
We thank you all for your kind thoughts at this sad time and wish all who are dealing with any sort of serious illness that they have the best of care and love for as long as they live.
With fond regards to you all, Anthea, Matt and family.
George, thanks for those lovely words. For my seven years on active surveillance, the YANA website was of real comfort and Terry's kind words were always an inspiration. He was a true mentor. In fact it was Terry's belief in AS that led me down that path in the first place, and for that I will always be grateful.
6th August, 2014, will be a date always etched in my memory, as it was also the date I had my prostate removed. Terry's passing was the sad news I leaned just after waking from my surgery. So from now to forever, the 6th August will always be the anniversary of my surgery and the anniversary of the passing of Terry, a man I loved and adored as much as it is possible to love someone I hadn't met.
And I will always regret never taking that short one hour plane ride down to Melbourne to meet him, and thank him personally for the enormous contribution he made to the support of prostate cancer sufferers around the world.
