Sydney musician Dan “Dunhill” Batchelor has hit hard medical times and bandmates have opened a GoFundMe campaign.
A co-founder of The Dunhill Blues, the band described as “Sydney's best B-grade garage-punk rock party outfit” (plus a few others), Dan recently kicked both cancer and an auto-immune disease to make a full return to work, gigs and family life.
Last month, he was hit by meningitis on a trip to Greece for partner Ves's significant birthday. He was treated in an Athens hospital and deemed fit to fly home.
“After receiving further treatment back home, Dan was well enough to return to his job... until The Big Setback,” explains bandmate Adam Dunhill.
“Last week, Dan was at work when he noticed his vision was blurred. He called Ves to pick him up, which she did... and took him straight to hospital for emergency treatment.
“Turns out, a rare complication of meningitis is blindness due to brain or optic nerve damage. The medicos reckon Dan was three hours away from total blindness, so it's very lucky Ves called it the way she did.
“Dan now has permanent damage in one eye, and is still in hospital being treated to prevent total vision impairment. It's heavy. And yeah... while this gives Dan time to work on his new blues guitarist name (and rest and recover, of course), the reality is this: the latest medical episode has emptied Dan and Ves's emergency fund.”
You’ll find the GoFundMe launched by The Dunhill Blues. Link and Pin Café and record label Outtaspace Presents here.
