Peter | Mt Wellington
“Surprise others. That’s a difficult one. I guess I’m a cancer survivor. That would surprise a few people. It’s been almost nine years, so very lucky person.
Well, it was in my mouth, tongue, and throat. I was lucky to catch it. I didn’t have a great chance of survival, but with full treatment I managed to get through it with huge loss of weight. I’ve put all that weight back on now. It’s quite good.
I’m an extremely determined person. I followed every instruction I had from the specialist. I know I didn’t miss any appointment. Probably 100 appointments – didn’t miss one. I did everything I had to, to get through it. Lucky.
Listen to the specialist. They will tell you the best odds of getting through it. Don’t go on the internet, worst thing you can do. Just listen to a decent specialist.
You’ve just got to keep positive all the time and just listen to people and what they say, and you’ll get through that sort of thing.
Zero (family support). No wife, no kids, just me. That’s made it easy to concentrate.
I come from the South Island originally, but I’ve lived in all different parts of the country. So I’ve been in Auckland for about 20 years. I got very lucky about, oh not quite 15 years ago, and I managed to retire. So I’ve been retired for many, many years luckily. I travel a lot, more overseas trips I guess, and more trips around New Zealand over the next probably two or three years, five years in short, you know, medium term.”
