If you've ever wondered what it would actually take to leave your mortgage, your car payments, and your nine-to-five behind for good, you're not alone. For most of us, it stays a fantasy. For Duncan Jones and Max Pascual, it became a plan, then a life, and then something far more complicated than either of them imagined.
The Queensland couple, aged 44 and 46 respectively, set off in early 2024 on an indefinite lap around Australia, having sold their home and walked away from full-time work. Their home became a 1997 caravan. Their schedule became their own. "We didn't really have an end date," Pascual told 9News. "We decided to just hit the road and keep going until we get sick of it."
The pair had previously lived on the Gold Coast, surrounded by the trappings of a comfortable life. Then a move to Bundaberg gave them a reset, and a reckoning. "We found we got caught in the trap again where you find a job, then you need a car to get to that job, and then you need to stay in that job to pay for the car," Pascual explained. Debt-free and deliberately so, they chose the caravan over a new mortgage and never looked back.
Their first year on the road took them through Victoria, South Australia, NSW and Queensland. By most measures, it was everything they had hoped for. Then, sometime last year, Jones noticed something wrong: a tender lump on his neck that wouldn't go away.
"His dad was the one that said, 'Oh, you should go see a doctor,'" Pascual recalled. The couple were passing through Colac in western Victoria when they first visited a GP. What followed was a series of specialist appointments booked on the move, a biopsy, a CT scan, and eventually a diagnosis that would test anyone's resolve.
Jones has stage-four salivary duct carcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. According to the couple, the condition had gone undetected for some time. "It wasn't diagnosed properly until two weeks ago," Pascual said at the time of publication. "Because it's a very rare cancer." The Cancer Council Australia notes that salivary gland cancers account for a small fraction of all head and neck cancers, making them particularly difficult to identify early.
Jones underwent radical surgery to remove the tumour, a procedure that has affected his vision and facial nerves. Radiotherapy is next. His five-year survival rate sits at around 35 per cent. "It's not great," he said simply. He had always considered himself healthy before the lump appeared.
What is striking, beyond the diagnosis itself, is how Jones and Pascual have responded to it. There has been no retreat to a fixed address, no scramble back to the stability of suburban life. If anything, the diagnosis has sharpened their commitment to the road. "I have absolutely zero interest in settling down," Jones said. "It's not an option. I couldn't think of anything worse."
Managing cancer treatment while travelling full-time might sound impossibly complicated, but the couple say Australia's healthcare system has made it more workable than outsiders might expect. "The medical system, in a nutshell, has been exceptional," Jones said. Pascual added that for people without a mortgage, the logistics of treatment on the road can actually be more flexible than trying to balance appointments with the demands of a fixed working life. For the latest information on cancer support services available to Australians, the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care provides a useful starting point.
Practically speaking, the couple's finances have shifted. Jones is now medically retired and unable to work. Pascual picks up casual shifts at caravan parks as needed to top up their funds. It is a lean existence, but a deliberate one. The Services Australia website outlines the support payments available to Australians with serious illness, which may be relevant for others in similar circumstances.
Their story draws a genuine contrast with the conventional wisdom that freedom comes after retirement, after the kids leave home, after the debt is paid. "The comment that is made to us frequently from older travellers is, I wish we'd done it when we were your age," Jones said. It is a sentiment that will resonate with anyone who has ever looked at a mortgage statement and felt the weight of it.
Their plan, for now, is to keep driving. As long as Jones is well enough, Australia's roads remain their address. "We're living well," Pascual said. "Living on the road does give you freedom." What that freedom costs, and what it is worth, is a question only they can answer. But their answer, even now, is clear enough.
For Australians facing a cancer diagnosis and wondering about their options, the Cancer Council Australia operates a free support line at 13 11 20.