Hi, I’m Nick. My parents named me after Young Nick’s Head, a headland viewed from our family house at Muriwai, Gisborne, New Zealand.
Today I live in Paekakariki, a village on the Kapiti Coast of NZ – population 1500.
I live in a small beach cottage with my wife Maree, my daughter Mia, our dog Fred, approximately three chickens and one tanked fish.
I started writing these posts in June 2009, as a blog from my bed in hospital, in Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
As part of my treatment for head & neck cancer, I had a radical surgery involving the removal of half of my tongue, leaving me unable to speak.
So, I couldn’t speak, but I could write. I decided to start blogging, as a way of letting my family and friends around the world know how I was.
A lot happened over the next 5 years, through treatments, recovery and ultimately, becoming cancer-free.
I kept the blog going through that time with occasional updates, covering my various adventures including surgeries, emergency rooms (etc), losing my speech, radiation treatment, chemo, getting my speech back, losing it, speech training, eating training, taking up mountain running again, taking up public speaking, springboard and platform diving, Outward Bound NZ, Outward Bound Costa Rica, goats, running up mountains like Mt Difficulty, Mt Jumbo, Mt Ruapehu, Mt Taranaki and ultimately running in one of the world’s toughest mountain races, to the summit of Mt Fuji, in Japan. Running the Fuji Summit Race as a fundraiser was my way of making a gift to my surgeon Professor Swee Tan and the rest of my remarkable medical dream team, for saving my life, and teaching me so much along the way.
By writing the blog, I heard from and met hundreds of different people around the world affected by cancer. Some of them would write and ask me questions about treatment I went through, what it was like and what experience they might face for their own upcoming treatment.
In December 2021, I had a diagnosis of a recurrence of head & neck cancer, and since then I’ve had a series of major surgeries, further speech therapy and of course - more adventures!
I’ve decided to keep my posts available here, for anyone who finds it helpful.
Thanks for reading!
Nick
