BARTHOLOMEW Walsh is a 23-year-old fun-loving guy from Port Melbourne.

He’s an actor and personal trainer and is fiercely passionate about health and fitness. But despite doing everything he can to be as healthy as possible, he is currently lying in a hospital bed in Melbourne, preparing for radiation therapy. And he is angry.

There is a “white hot rage” inside him but not so much over his own illness but towards the people that are taking their health for granted.

“I am surrounded by a flock of overweight smokers that demand to be pushed in a wheelchair to get to the bathroom,” he said.

This is his powerful message:

Four weeks ago I was diagnosed with cancer.

A rare and aggressive sub-mandible sheath tumour the size of a baseball, is growing under the right side of my jaw.

It seems like an eternity since I was diagnosed, but finally, after countless scans and tests, I have appropriately wound up here.

Alone in a hospital ward, with only my abnormal growth to keep me company.

The surgeons will extract the right side of my jaw, my right bottom teeth, the right floor of my mouth and about 1cm of my tongue.

They will replace the jaw bone with a section of my fibula, whilst stealing skin flaps from my upper and inner thigh.

Leaving me with an extensive recovery process in which I will need to learn to speak and swallow again, whilst getting what’s left of my leg up and working.

Due to the delicacy of the procedure I will be breathing through a tube in my neck, rendering me unable to speak for up to two weeks.

This leaves a career as an actor in serious jeopardy. However, I can confidently say that never before have I been so sure of what I believe in.

The frustrating thing is that it takes a situation like this for me to be sure.

I also thought I knew what it meant to be passionate about something, but again, when one is thrown a curve ball like this your eyes open so wide that your perspective turns three dimensional.

I’m passionate about health and fitness as a solution to keeping EVERYONE away from where I am sitting right now.

It’s difficult for me to put in words how I feel.

There is however, a white hot rage towards people that are taking their health for granted.

I’m 23, can run a marathon and squat almost twice my body weight.

Yet I am surrounded by a flock of overweight smokers that demand to be pushed in a wheelchair to get to the bathroom.

I have done everything right, I don’t deserve to be here.

The infuriating thing is, if these people made the same choices I did, they would be enjoying an apnoea-free sleep, surrounded by their adoring family.

It feels like words on a blog are not enough to wake most people up, but please read and really understand these next words carefully:

Never compromise your health. Never take your health for granted. Never settle for average health.

And please, please, please find what you love and do it.

The next time you hear from me I will have undergone my surgery, I will be sitting in this same bed and will be missing a large portion of my face.

This is just a small step in a long journey, and by sharing it with you is my attempt to bring awareness to why no one should ever go through this.

The Peter MacCullum Cancer Foundation is Australia’s only public hospital solely dedicated to cancer treatment, research and education.

If you’d like to make a donation to the Foundation, visit foundation.petermac.org.

Bart’s friends have pledged that they will get #bossfitforbart and have committed to making their health a priority if you’d like to get involved.

Read more of Bart’s inspiring journey here.