A couple has told how they both suffered pain most Aussies get from time to time before being diagnosed with cancer months apart.
Last year, Phil and Robyn Neven had niggling lower back pain which Phil put down to kidney stones, as he had experienced them in the past.
‘I had tests and there was nothing there. Then I had a urinary tract infection (UTI) and was quite ill and it hurt to pee, but we cured that,’ Phil told the Daily Mail.
Then, one day out of nowhere, Phil peed blood.
‘It was painless, but I was thinking holy crap. I absolutely crapped myself and took a sample to the doctors,’ Phil said.
‘They told me, “you have bladder cancer”, so I heard the dreaded C word.
‘I thought I had a bad back, but it (cancer) was brewing away without me knowing it.’
Phil’s cancer was likely festering for months given his back had been aching for more than a year.
Phil Neven put his back pain down to kidney stones, before he was told he had bladder cancer
Phil’s wife, Robyn Neven (right), also had niggling lower back pain and was later diagnosed with bladder cancer
When the 75-year-old was diagnosed, his wife Robyn began experiencing lower back pain of her own.
After being diagnosed last February, Phil underwent chemotherapy and preliminary treatment through the year before finding out he had to have his bladder, prostate, and lymph nodes removed.
That occurred five months ago and Robyn was operated on for her bladder cancer two weeks ago.
Both surgeries were successful, and even though Phil lives with a stoma (an abdominal opening) and bag, which he said was ‘better than being dead’, he and his wife know they’re lucky.
That’s because the Warragul locals were diagnosed with a cancer with a survival rate that is lower than what it was 30 years ago.
Bladder cancer is the 11th most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia, with more than 3,300 new cases recorded in 2025, up from about 3,000 in 2021.
Men are three times more likely to be diagnosed than women, and despite advances in cancer treatment more broadly, the bladder cancer five-year survival rate is lower (57 per cent from 2017-2021) than it was three decades ago (66 per cent from 1987-1991).
Early detection remains the most important thing for patients because bladder cancer can be very aggressive when it grows in the muscle of the bladder.
Phil Neven goes in for a screening after surgery for bladder cancer
Associate Professor Weranja Ranasinghe said too many Aussies were dismissing blood in their urine as something minor when it could be bladder cancer
Symptoms to be aware of include blood in the urine, passing urine more frequently, a burning feeling during urination and pain in the pelvis, lower abdomen or lower back.
Common risk factors for bladder cancer include smoking, older age, exposure to certain industrial chemicals, family history and a record of chronic urinary tract infections.
‘We did have 100 years of smoking between us,’ Phil admitted.
‘They couldn’t find anything wrong with my bad back. The actual cancer itself was painless.’
Associate Professor Weranja Ranasinghe said too many Aussies were dismissing blood in their urine as something minor while admitting researchers were not sure why men got the disease more than women.
Associate Professor Ranasinghe told Daily Mail survival rates drop dramatically once the cancer gets into the layers of the muscles.
‘It’s a challenging cancer to treat when people present too late and it spreads outside the muscle layer,’ he said.
‘If you pick it up early, and it’s limited to the inner lining of the bladder, a lot of the times it can be treated.
Early diagnosis is key in treating bladder cancer before it gets into the lining of the muscles
‘The blood in the urine can be from the tumour growing into the inner lining of the bladder which is in contact with the urine.’
Phil and his wife look to be out of the woods for now.
He said he felt lucky to be born in Australia given how expensive bladder cancer treatment was.
‘I’ve got to have 12 immune boosting shots this year and they cost $9,000 each. What other country would look after you like that?’ Phil said.
‘Especially for someone like me who could be seen as a drain on the system.’
