DAMIEN MacRae’s life was turned upside down when he was diagnosed with stage four melanoma, but a project with his son has been the silver lining.

Two years ago Mr MacRae, of Petersham, found a mole on his ear and went to have it removed, only to discover it was a malignant melanoma.

As a result, he had a third of his ear removed, but that was just the beginning.

Last year doctors found a tumour on his lungs which was surgically removed, along with three of his ribs.

After getting the all-clear, he had a seizure three weeks ago and, while he was in hospital, more tumours were found. He now faces both surgery and radiation.

media_camera Damien Macrae and his son Aiden’s proposed lego campaign, they need 10,000 votes to make there idea a reality. Picture: Craig Wilson

Mr MacRae said one positive was that he got to spend more time with his seven-year-old son Aiden.

“Aiden is obsessed with Lego and we play it together every day,” he said.

“One day we came across this website called ‘Lego ideas’ encouraging people to come up with new sets.

“We talked about doing an Australian beach set with sunscreen and surf lifesavers connecting it to sun safety and melanoma.”

media_camera Damien Macrae and his son Aiden are campaining to have sun safe lego made up (they have designs with life savers with sunscreen on etc) they need 10,000 votes to make there idea a reality. Picture: Craig Wilson

It has been a passion project for the past few months and evolved into a classic Aussie beach scene, complete with lifesavers, a rescue boat, red-and-yellow flags and, of course, seagulls.

Mr McRae said they had put a lot of thought into the set, naming each character after a celebrity who has had skin cancer. Aiden and Damien need 10,000 votes to bring their Lego idea to stores all around the globe.

Vote at: ideas.lego.com/projects/155367/