For years, Mr Smith has been posting videos to YouTube sharing his knowledge of gold prospecting and other outdoor adventures.

His channel has accumulated more than 22,000 subscribers from across the globe, who have in part contributed to the more than three million views on his videos.

Those loyal followers were shocked to learn earlier this year that Mr Smith had been diagnosed with cancer, which he later revealed was terminal.

He was initially diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020, at the same time learning he also had fibromyalgia, which causes widespread muscle pain and tenderness.

The rheumatologist he was seeing was also concerned about spots on his liver that had shown up in a previous scan but weren't investigated further.

Additional tests determined that the spots were neuroendocrine tumours (NETs), a rare form of cancer. They had metastasised from a primary cancer, which was located in his intestinal tract and had also spread to his lymph nodes.

The cancer was too far advanced for doctors to treat. Instead, they are addressing the symptoms of it in an effort to give him the best quality of life possible.

Mr Smith has accepted his terminal cancer diagnosis and is doing his best to keep a positive attitude, choosing to make the most of the time he has left.

"I don't see a need to be afraid of death. We all experience it, it's just that some people, like myself, will have a bit of an idea of when it's going to happen, whereas everybody else just plods along merrily in their life until it gets towards the end and then they'll start to think about it," Mr Smith said.

He decided to be upfront about his prognosis and has been documenting his cancer journey on his YouTube channel, Adventure Gold.

His subscribers wanted to give back to him and, with his permission, began raising money to go towards his medical and travel expenses.

A GoFundMe page was started by Kim and Robert Critchley, who live in America, and it has so far received more than $5000 in donations.

Mr Smith speaks with such composure when it comes to his diagnosis, treatment and life expectancy, but can't help getting choked up when he recounts the generosity of the online community he has never met.

"I'm absolutely overwhelmed. It's brought me to tears I don't know how many times and I still struggle with this, because I don't feel I'm deserving of the support and the care and all the help that they're giving me," he said.

"I'm just an ordinary guy and I just share my life. I couldn't believe the responses that were coming in and how people were telling me that I had changed their lives, and how, some of these people, I'd lifted them out of dark places that they were in.

"... The amount of love and care that has come in has been very, very hard for me to cope with, because I really don't think I deserve it. All I wanted to do was help people, and I think it's come back tenfold, the amount of love and support and care."

In addition to the GoFundMe Page, Mr Smith's wife Beth was approached by a man from Victoria, Victor Argiropoulous, who wanted to organise a surprise fundraiser to benefit her husband.

More than 150 people attended the event in Creswick on July 30, including other prospecting content creators from YouTube, and together they raised almost $10,000 for Mr Smith.

"For all these people to rally together for someone they don't know, how bloody special is that," Mrs Smith said.

Anyone who wants to donate to Mr Smith can do so through the GoFundMe page.

While Mr Smith is using his YouTube channel to update his followers, he and his wife also hope to raise awareness about rare cancers like NETs and to encourage people to trust their gut when it comes to their health.

"If you ever have anything that is just niggling and constantly annoying you and the doctor goes, 'It's probably nothing', no. Don't be satisfied with that for an answer," Mr Smith said.

"We pay these guys enough, we need to be looked after. If something's niggling and it continues, you push harder."

To find out more about Mr Smith's cancer journey, visit Adventure Gold on YouTube.