Young Nick's Head

Snippets, snapshots, sketches, speeches and stories from Nick White’s Head, New Zealand.

Hi, I’m Nick.

Today I live in Paekakariki, a small village on the Kapiti Coast of NZ – population 1500.

I live in a small beach cottage with my wife Maree, my daughter Mia, two cats, three chickens, and a small family of wild goats on the hill behind.

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 and regarded as cured, in November 2014.

I kept the blog going through that time with regular and irregular 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 Taranaki and ultimately running in one of the world’s toughest mountain races, to the summit of Mt Fuji, in Japan. That story 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.

I’ve stopped blogging and public speaking now, to focus my time living a simple life in Paekakariki with Maree and Mia.

I’ve decided to keep the posts available here, for anyone who finds it helpful.

Thanks for reading.

Nick