About

 

Hi, I’m Nick.  This site is about my experience with Head & Neck Cancer and how it has influenced my outlook on life.

I wrote my first post from my hospital bed, a few days after coming out of Intensive Care unit following my first surgery in June 2009.  I lost my speech for a while, so I started this blog as a way of expressing myself and telling my family & friends around the world how I was feeling.

After that, I began spicing up my recovery with activities such as springboard & platform diving, running the Rimutaka incline with a stomach tube in, and racing up & down Mt Tongariro like a Goat.

Now, I’m a proud escaped patient of Wellington’s public health system.  I have frequent checkups & monitoring, to make sure my recovery is going smoothly, but my health today is Excellent – thanks to my Medical Dream Team.

And thanks to the support of all my family & friends, I’m the fittest & happiest I’ve ever been in my whole life.

Since getting cancer & going through treatment, I’ve learned a lot about life in a very concentrated way.  My cancer experience has been serious business, but it has also enhanced my outlook on life.   I enjoy writing & speaking about what I’ve learnt, and sharing it with others in different ways.  There’s a highlights package of that, here.

I’m on the Outward Bound NZ Members Council, a patron of the Pink & Steel Pilates Trust, founder of mycancerexperience.co.nz and a member and past president of Mt Victoria Toastmasters.


In my ‘Secrets of a Shameless Optimist’ emails, I give behind-the-scenes updates on my projects:
  1. MyCancerExperience, my new nonprofit startup
  2. Progress on my book, a.k.a.  THE BOOK (gulp)
  3. Speech & presentation gigs, recent & upcoming.

…with occasional updates on mountain running, outward bound nz, and my addiction to smoothies :).