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It’s not a sentence we may expect to hear from someone who was told he didn’t have long left to live:
“The most enlightening thing that happened in my life was getting cancer,” Awhitu’s John Triggs says.
Cancer was a curveball that took Triggs off the golf course, but ultimately, it helped him find his way back. In 2011, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer when a tumour was discovered in his neck.
“I’d never bloody heard of a thyroid,” he says. “Then, the doctor sat me down and said, ‘John, you’ve got eight weeks left’.”
Fortunately, surgery was an option. Although scans and blood tests eventually confirmed he was cancer-free, his recovery was far from over.
Triggs spent the next five years battling fatigue and chronic pain, leaving him unable to play golf, a sport he had loved since childhood, or even simply swing a club.
“There was a time when you’d have to rip my arm off to stop me from playing golf,” he says. “But my hands were too sore, I had no coordination and I just felt like a basket case. I went home despondent but thought there must be a solution to this.”
Triggs turned to natural health options, drawing on a background in holistic health businesses including Abeeco, which specialises in health supplements using bee pollen.
With the addition of breathing techniques and a daily exercise routine, he was soon back on course. Now, Triggs is sharing some of the techniques that helped him regain his strength while also coaching at the Awhitu Golf Club. Wellbeing, he says, extends beyond hospitals and golf courses.
“Every morning I do breathing exercises for half an hour and it’s a fantastic half an hour,” he adds. “Anything that creates brotherhood or sisterhood in any way is good for you and important in life.”
August 28 is Daffodil Day. To help the Cancer Society help others, such as John Triggs, visit daffodilday.org.nz.
