When Alex Ouwens and Luke Holden of Australia's Ouwens Casserly Real Estate learned their children had cancer within a few months of each other, they decided to "step up" as a leadership team.
"As an organization, and as a leadership team, we had to step up," agency director Nathan Casserly tells Australia's ABC News.
Ouwens, a director, was 5 when he was diagnosed; his 10-year-old son, Luke, was diagnosed a year later, Casserly says.
"We had a challenge around leadership with key personnel being out, but we still had a very good, successful year," he adds, per the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Ouwens returned to work 18 months after his diagnosis, while Holden was out for a year, Casserly says.
Now Ouwens Casserly is a finalist in the Residential Agency of the Year category of the Australian Real Estate Association's Excellence Awards, which honor the "outstanding performance in supporting Australians through every aspect of their property journey," per ABC.
The other two finalists are LongView Real Estate in Victoria and TOOP+TOOP Real Estate in South Australia.
LongView co-founder Evan Thornley tells ABC he's "gobsmacked"
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