It is the kind of tale that instills fear into the heart of every family and one that has now become a reality for the Ramages.

On February 8, Gemma Ramage drove her husband Ben from their Kooringal home to Wagga Base Hospital after he complained of a migraine.

From there, Mr Ramage’s rapid decline in health was startling. He quickly went into cardiogenic shock, with his heart and organs beginning to fail, before he was placed on to life support for two days.

Mrs Ramage said Ben’s quick decline was a terrible shock for both her and the couple’s two young children, 10-year-old Sophie and eight-year-old Zakary.

“He just had a migraine and then all of a sudden our world was just transformed completely,” Mrs Ramage said.

"We're so young, so we haven’t even considered what we'd do if anything were to happen to either one of us, because it's just the furthest thing from your mind."

After Wagga Base Hospital exhausted all of its resources, Mr Ramage endured a touch-and-go helicopter ride to Sydney’s St Vincent Hospital, where he was diagnosed with Paraganglioma cancer, an exceptionally rare illness affecting one in every 500,000 people.

The location of the cancerous tumour on Mr Ramage’s adrenal gland makes his diagnosis even more of an anomaly, with Sydney doctors declaring him a “one in a million” case.

The diagnoses sent a shock through the family that Mrs Ramage said she couldn’t have predicted, though she said her husband was doing his best to stay positive for their children.  

“I was so shocked I didn’t even cry for days after we found out,” she said.

“After what we’d just been through, to hear he had cancer was just devastating.”

"Ben's coping at the moment, we're both immensely stressed, but it's just so frustrating that this has happened to someone like him,” she said.

“He's such a hard worker, he would help anyone at the drop of a hat and is a wonderful father who spends so much time with the kids."

With Mr Ramage due to undergo surgery to remove the tumours on March 17, Mrs Ramage said the family established a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for everyday living expenses and travel costs while Ben continued treatment in Sydney.

“Both of us have had to take time off work, so we’re really struggling financially with simple things, like paying rent, bills, buying groceries and flying the kids to Sydney to see their dad.”

“I thought it wouldn’t do any harm to set one up and if there are people who think they could help us that would be amazing, because we just don’t know what will happen next.”

Those wanting to support the Ramage family can make a donation at www.gofundme.com/2drhfjb6.