Victim of deadly wedding bus crash recently beat cancer before …
One of the victims of the wedding bus crash in Australia that killed ten people had only recently beaten cancer, it has been revealed.
Zachary Bray, 29, was on the bus with 34 others when it rolled on its side and hit a guard rail in heavy fog in New South Wales late on Sunday.
The Byron Bay man was one of many identified as unaccounted for following Australia’s most deadly road accident since 1994.
Brett Andrew Button, 58, was driving passengers 20 minutes down the road from a wedding reception at the Wandin Estate Winery to the town of Singleton, both in the Hunter Valley wine region, when the tragedy happened.
Haunting final photos of dreamy Australia wedding before 10 guests killed when bus crashes[1]
The scene of a bus crash near Greta in Hunter Valley, New South Wales (
DARREN PATEMAN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Button had been in police custody but was released on bail when he appeared in the Cessnock Local Court on Tuesday charged with ten counts of dangerous driving concerning each death and one count of negligent driving.
Tragically, in 2019, Zachary was diagnosed with bowel cancer. He survived the diagnosis but is now believed to be dead following the crash.
“It’s not often I put stuff on FB and prefer to keep my online presence low-key. However, I have a little story I’d like to share in the hope of helping spread a message that is very close to home right now”, he wrote four years ago.
Bray said he had noticed blood on his toilet paper for three months but dismissed the symptoms. After finally booking in with his GP and undergoing a colonoscopy, Bray was told a growth in his bowel had been found and that it was cancerous.
Brett Andrew Button, 58, leaves Cessnock Police Station (
Getty Images)
He continued: “After multiple scans, I was told I have either stage two or three rectal cancer in my middle to lower rectum.
“The tumour is around 34cm long and has inflamed the surrounding lymph nodes but has not appeared anywhere else.”
In 2020 he was given the all-clear and spoke at a fundraiser for The Gut Foundation as an ambassador.
Six people from Singleton are also unaccounted for after the crash: husband and wife Andrew and Lynan Scott, Tori Cowburn, Rebecca Mullen, and mother and daughter Nadene and Kyah McBride.
The passengers were at the wedding of high school sweethearts Mitchell Gaffney and Madeleine Edsell (
Instagram)
Police said injuries sustained by passengers who survived the crash ranged from lacerations to breaks and fractures, as well as “very serious injuries.”
Two people are critical, while 12 others are stable across four hospitals.
Nine of the fatalities remained crushed beneath the bus throughout Monday until a crane could lift the vehicle, while the 10th died on the way to John Hunter Hospital.
The passengers were at the wedding of high school sweethearts Mitchell Gaffney and Madeleine Edsell, in what has been described as a “fairytale”-like day.
A woman lays flowers near the site of the bus crash (
Getty Images)
Edsell’s cousin Kynan Stanford, who was with the bride when she learned of the crash, told 7NEWS[2]: “The bride was pretty much kicking down the door trying to get in the car, saying, ‘Get me there, I need to go’ and we were like, ‘No, you don’t need to go’.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the tragedy as “cruel” and “so so unfair”.
In a statement, he said: “All Australians’ thoughts go out to the family, friends, and loved ones of those we’ve lost in such horrific circumstances.”