Our Friend, colleague and favourite surf buddy, João Veiga is fighting hard to over come a huge curve ball that life has thrown his way. Many of you will have met him on our Portugal, Costa Rica, El Salvador or Sumatra trips. He is a super fit, super positive and super wise-beyond-his- years kind of a guy. We’re sending him love and support from the Bodyboard Holidays community. If you can afford to help by pledging to his Go Fund Me or sharing it to others, it will help him with the huge medical expenses that lay ahead. We checked in with him to see how he’s shaping up.
For anyone who might not fully understand where things currently stand, can you tell us a little about your diagnosis, how you’re feeling physically now, and what the next stage of treatment looks like for you?
Short long story, after the Central America trips, I’ve been diagnosed with bladder cancer (2014 recurrence) as well as distal ureter. Since March, I had 3 surgeries already and all of them went super well and smooth. Biggest challenge is that now I need a last major one as the tumours were a bit more aggressive and bigger than initially thought. I feel very well physically, even with all these surgeries in such a short amount of time, as I’m taking very good care of myself, being followed by super competent medical professionals, not to forget being super supported by family, girlfriend, friends and everyone around me. Right now, I feel that this is hopefully the last obstacle I’ve to overcome to climb successfully this mountain made of physical, emotional, spiritual and logistical challenges.
What have the doctors told you about the pathway ahead — what treatment will you be having, when does it begin, and what are you expecting the next few weeks and months to look like?
I’m being followed by the local oncology hospital (IPO), integrative medicine clinic center (One Life Clinic) and London Cancer Centre (Royal Marsden) so it’s a dynamic process. Right now the plan is first to stage the disease through exams and imaging, have major treatments (chemotherapy most likely), restage the disease and after all that advance to the surgery.
Away from the physical side of everything, how are you doing mentally? Has your outlook changed since the diagnosis, and what have you found helps you deal with the more difficult days or moments?
I still don’t have the exact timing because things are a bit slow around here, but I’m guessing my last months of this year I’ll be recovering from this major surgery. Before that, it’s a daily task for me to prepare myself at all levels for this last round of treatments and surgery.
The bodyboarding community has really rallied around you, with so many messages of support, encouragement and financial contributions. What has that outpouring of love meant to you and your family, and has anything about the response particularly surprised or moved you?
As I already had to deal with this situation in the past, I was better prepared for it. And even though this time I’m on a much more delicate situation compared to 2014, I’m holding on much better. Keeping a positive and focused thinking is super important always in our lives, especially in delicate situation like this. Anxiety, panic, fear or even anger, are super normal emotions to have when the word cancer comes to us, but we should never let them overcome, we must deal with it, feel it and recycle so we can get back the positivity. Faith, positivity, focus and discipline are my main drivers.
A life threatening disease changes a lot on our perspectives, right now I feel I’m even more grateful for the life I had and have, and that includes also the so-called bad moments (after all they shaped me the way I am), I appreciate more all the moments, and I definitely understand better what’s really important in this life and what is not, not only for myself, but also for the world around me.
I found help from my family, girlfriend, friends (even strangers sometimes), and in God. Also, living day to day with a healthy and happy routine, and changing my mindset with focus on the long-term goal, believing in my healing properties. Last but not the least, being informed about the disease as much as possible so that I can fight it with my own weapons. I’ve been reading lots of scientific data, books, listening to podcasts etc. The bad days fortunately are really a minority and I believe that all the ingredients in this recipe help on all this. Whenever we’re in a bad moment, there’s nothing like breathing deeply and reassess the situation with a different mindset that can help us instead of letting us feel even worse. Our thoughts and emotions are so much more powerful than we tend to think. Last but not the least, excluding the post op timings, I never stopped bodyboarding. It’s magical, therapeutical, and every time I go to the ocean I feel better, as it always has been.
Looking ahead, what are you focusing on most right now? Are there particular milestones you’re aiming towards, and what are you most looking forward to being able to do once you’re through this next stage of treatment?
I kept things more or less private, without making it really a secret but also without announcing to everyone about it. Since the beginning I had everybody aware of the situation super supportive and worried about it. When things got more intense and this last surgery scenario showed up, my friend Manuel Centeno, started this Go Fund Me donation page without me knowing about it. When I knew about it, I felt extremely grateful, blessed and deeply moved, with tears of joy with all this love and care that I’m receiving. The dimensions of this support, and I’m not talking only about the financial aspect of it is astonishing. Even little kids with little to no financial capacities, or complete strangers were helping me, and that made me have a super positive faithful perspective about humanity. This also meant for me that I’ve touched many people’s lives and that matters a lot. Particularly, the bodyboarding community showed extreme support and I felt like this is a retribution for all the special moments I share with them in the ocean. On the other hand, and I know it’s sad to say this, but this is something I have to work on also, which is the feeling of not wanting to be a burden or a worry to other people. As Manuel wrote on the donation note, I must accept this as a true gift from everyone. I just hope I can retribute it the best way I can to them and the universe.
Looking ahead, what are you focusing on most right now? Are there particular milestones you’re aiming towards, and what are you most looking forward to being able to do once you’re through this next stage of treatment?
Right now, I’m focusing on doing the best I can to overcome this situation, and prepare myself to this healing process. So, my health, immunity and wellbeing are my top priorities. I’ve been relying on a strict anti-cancer diet, fasting, circadian rhythms, quality sleep, grounding, exercise, rest and quality time. Current treatments with my integrative doctor are also non-negotiable for me. Getting to know better how this disease works is on my daily to do list. Spiritual reconnection helped me a lot and is a must. My focus basically, is on maintaining all this discipline, and everyday try to be 0.1% better with it. About milestones, I already made a 5 day water fast, maybe I could go a bit longer who knows. This is something everybody should do once in a while either healthy or not, research a little about it.
The obvious answer to that, is bodyboarding ahaha! I just want to be healthy again, tell everybody about that, and if possible help others on that process too. However, I know that the road is still long, so what I most want to be able to do after this stage, is have the best recovery as possible. The healing process is magical, teaches us a lot of things and I want to get the most out of it and enjoy it!
Much appreciated for all the love, help and support for everybody.
All the best legend!
