From Cancer Survivor to the Olympic Stadium: My Unbelievable Journey to Paris 2024

Photo taken in 2011 when I went to Paris for the first time!

Personally, I've been a huge Olympic fan ever since the 1996 Atlanta games when I was 8 years old. During the 2000 Olympic Games I went to Japan on a school trip and my granny stayed up and recorded the whole 2 weeks on VHS for me.

So when we signed the New Zealand Olympic Team as our first client, it was a huge moment for us and really helped to kickstart the whole business at Cub Digital.

We worked with David Nyika and the New Zealand Boxing Team for the Tokyo Olympics

The Tokyo Olympics were postponed due to COVID-19 and it was very difficult to attend them due to all of the restrictions, but we were still able to work with the team and help them prepare for the games.

I said to my sister at the time, "I'm going to walk down the Champs-Élysées in 2024 while the Paris Olympics are on."

The Champs-Élysées in Paris - Photo by Gautier Salles on Unsplash

I enjoy setting big vivid goals like this.

Little did I know that 18 months after saying this, everything in my life was about to change.

Dec 13 2022

The above photo is taken 3 days after I was diagnosed with cancer. I had just turned 34 and was in the prime of my life. The photo might seem strange, I'm smiling and to be honest, just walking out of the hospital was a huge achievement as I had been in there for 3 days and already had an emergency procedure to remove the first tumour.

I was very concious and deliberate with photos at the time, I wanted to project strength. I wanted to wear nice clothes, I wanted to look good. I wanted to be strong for my family and friends and for myself. I didn't want to look sick, cancer was not going to define me.

The cancer spreads

Getting diagnosed with cancer was one of the times where the movies absolutely nail what it feels like. I was in shock, I was in disbelief, I was in denial. I was in a state of "this can't be happening to me."

I had two sets of bad news on that Saturday morning. The first was a doctor walking in at 9.30:

"Hi Chris, It's bad news I'm afraid. The biopsy results are back and it's cancer. I'm so sorry."

Dec 10 2022 - 30 minutes after I got diagnosed - it felt very surreal and scary

Now things are going to move fast Chris, we need to get you in for a CT scan and an MRI to see how far it has spread.

After the CT was my second set of bad news.

"Hi Chris, I'm sorry to say that the cancer has spread to your abdomen and you will be needing a very brutal chemotherapy to try and stop it."

Chemo chart they give you to show the various side effects

Be Strong

I remember grieving for a few hours in shock and then I remember thinking, "I'm going to fight this with everything I have."

Jan 9 2023 - 3 rounds of brutal chemo begins

After the first session, I couldn't believe how brutal it was. 8 hours on the IV line, 3 different chemo drugs. I instantly felt sick, tired, and weak. I remember thinking, "I have to come back and do all of this again tommorrow? And the next day? And the next day? Are you actually joking?"

Jan 9 2023 - End of Day 1

Walk on the Champs-Élysées? I couldn't even walk to the bathroom

I remember having a moment on the fourth day of chemo. I was so weak that I couldn't even walk to the bathroom. I remember thinking, will I ever be able to travel again? Will I ever be able to run again?

Jan 12 2023 - Chemo During Day 4 - I couldn't walk, my muscles would cramp and my heart was about to have a blood clot from the pressure

No Travel - No Nothing - Just Hashbrowns

The thing that is scary about getting diagnosed with my type of cancer is that you can't do anything. You can't travel, you can't exercise, you can't even go to the supermarket. Your whole world shrinks in the click of a finger.

Feb 4 2023 - Hashbrown Diet

The only food that I could eat was hashbrowns. I would eat 12 a day and that was it.

I remember thinking at the time, "If I ever get healthy again, I'm going to do something that makes me really happy, I'm going to go and explore the depths and breadths of the world, I'm going to go on an adventure."

Mar 6 2023 - Last Chemo Session!

We didn't get it all

After 3 rounds of chemo, I had a CT scan to see how the cancer was doing. The results were not good. They hadn't got it all. The cancer was still there and it was still growing. They needed to operate and remove the tumours at the back of my abdomen.

May 23 - 2023 - Back in Hospital for a major operation - it took a number of days to even be able to sit up

I had an 8 hour operation and was in hospital for 2 weeks. I remember waking up and thinking, "I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive."

May 30 - 2023 - Reunited with my daughter after 2 weeks - she wasn't able to see me in hospital

I can't believe it's already June .... NOT!

You know how people always say, "I can't believe it's already ...." - well I tell you what in 2023, I counted every minute of it. Starting a brutal chemotherapy regime on the 9th of Jan and having the following:

• 3 rounds of chemo
• 100 injections
• 2 operations
• 30 days in hospital
• 1 blood clot
• 1 major flood

Jan 30 - 2023 - We had a 100 year flood in Auckland - note this is a park usually and not a lake

Having all of those things happen is a sure way to burn in your memory every single day of the year. Of all the years I have ever lived, by the time I got to June, I could absolutely believe it was June. In fact it felt like June 2026.

It was a heck of a start to a year. Unfortunately the story doesn't end there. When I first got diagnosed with cancer, the CT scan showed that I had excess fluid in my brain. This was a side effect of the cancer and the chemo. I would need another surgery to remove that. They would need to drill a hole in my head and insert a tube to drain the fluid. Before I could start it, they wanted to let me recover a bit more and get healthy.

Brain Surgery and we are done!

March 13 - 2024 - A fresh hole in my head

2 weeks in hospital and time in the intensive care unit and I was finally done!

Phew! Yay! Hooray! Celebration time! I was finally done with cancer treatment. I had been through the ringer and back and I was finally done. I was finally healthy again. I was finally able to travel again. I was finally able to run again. I was finally able to live again.

Present Day

And so he we are, the 14th of July 2024. After 18 months of brutal cancer treatment, I'm finally healthy again. I'm incredible thankful to be alive and to be able to write this post. I'm incredibly thankful to be able to walk, to be able to run, to be able to travel, to be able to live.

I'm so thankful for my family, friends, business partners, team, doctors, nurses, surgeons, oncologists, physiotherapists, nutritionists, trainers, coaches, clients, team, business partners, clients, readers, followers, supporters & encouragers.

You literally saved my life, gave me courage, supported me. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a world to beat cancer. I'm one of the lucky ones and I feel grateful for every single day that I get.

May 23 - 2024 - Living. Happy. Grateful.

See you in Paris

Cancer robs you of many things and one of them is to realise and remember that there is this incredibly rich world out there. Your entire universe shrinks to your own head, your hospital bed and your immediate surroundings. A promise I made to myself was that if I ever got healthy again, I would go and explore the world, I would travel the breadths and depths of the world and live adventures that I could only dream of.

And at the back of my mind this whole time, I have had a goal, which is what I started this article with, walking down the Champs-Élysées in 2024 while the Paris Olympics are on.

So guess what. After quite possibly the most wild set of circumstances I could have ever imagined, I'm heading to Paris in 2 weeks!!!

It still feels fake to be honest. Like the concept of going to a real life Olympic Games just feels like Disneyland, sort of like a dream that you are like, nah this isn't actually happening.

I'm excited, like deeply excited, like a kid on Christmas Eve excited. It all still feels a bit surreal to be honest.

I'm going to walk down the Champs-Élysées and I'm going to watch the Olympics in the Olympic Stadium.

You know, after all, the world is a beautiful place and I'm so grateful to be alive and to be able to experience it.

It's happening! Paris 2024!

See you there.

Postage Stamps

Quite a random transition I know, but hey, every article, I'm going to continue to make stamps haha. I've decided to create stamps that reflect the articles I write. This way, I can look back over time and make an awesome collection of all the stamps.

To view all of the stamps, click here.