HE has lost an eye, been fitted with a pacemaker and was recently diagnosed with three inoperable cancers, but Alby Schultz is not throwing in the towel just yet.
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Multiple chemotherapy treatments have left the 74-year-old former federal member for Hume with nausea and exhaustion, while pins and needles make drinking water feel like swallowing "frozen razor blades".
Despite this, the former politician said he is staying positive. "I've got a problem and I'm addressing it," he said. "That's how I've attacked everything."
Mr Schultz has been receiving treatment once a fortnight since retiring after many years serving an electorate he described as "bigger than Belgium".
His resignation at last month's election ended a 25-year career in politics at both state and federal levels, giving him time to address the prostate cancer he was diagnosed with last December.
Despite being cleared of any additional illnesses in March, Mr Schultz said doctors soon found another three tumours in his liver and a soft mass at the bottom of his oesophagus. "From March to June this year I went from having nothing to five cancers," he said. "Just like that in three months, for no reason. They just appeared."
The outspoken former abattoir worker has since been using his illness to make an example of men who refuse to go to the doctor.
He said men should stop being "bloody stupid" and sign up for a medical check-up once a year.
"Just have a blood test," he said. "It's not painful. It costs you nothing, but it's the difference between identifying something in its early stages and identifying it when it's well advanced. The difference between the two is life and death."
Dealing with the macho mentality has been a primary part of Mr Schultz's former role as member for Hume, a rural electorate that reported numerous suicides over the tough drought years.
While he believes his hands-on approach helped him survive seven redistributions and several attempts to oust him, Mr Schultz said the losses in the community had stayed with him.
"We're ordinary human beings, regardless of what other people might like to think about politicians," he said. "They suffer the same positives and negatives that people experience. I think people forget that from time to time."
Despite his health concerns, Mr Schultz said he was handling the retirement well, receiving visitors such as Simon Crean while keeping up with former prime minister John Howard.
The continued relationships have been a welcome distraction for Mr Schultz, whose doctors located another tumour in his liver last week. I'm positive," he said. "I know a lot of people that have had the problem I've got and got over it. Cured.''