This week, New Zealand sailor Dean Barker revealed that he was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2019.
Barker says he was feeling as fit and as healthy as ever – and preparing for the 2021 America's Cup – when he realised something was wrong.
"There were no warning signs, I didn't feel tired or run down or anything else. It wasn't until I saw this blood I figured something wasn't quite right," he tells Jesse Mulligan.
Dean Barker Photo: Greg Bowker Visuals // Bowel Cancer NZ
Barker says he was "too embarrassed" to tell his wife Mandy that he'd discovered blood in his stool and it was two or three weeks before he sought medical advice.
In November 2019, a colonoscopy confirmed that Barker had a tumour in his bowel, and he finally told Mandy. A week later, he had surgery and a few weeks after that began a six-month round of chemotherapy.
Barker says he's although he's had his share of tough losses in sport, cancer diagnosis and treatment have been by far the hardest things he's ever had to deal with.
The chemotherapy treatment left him with nausea and fatigue, and neuropathy forced him to wear heated gloves while sailing with his American Magic teammates.
New Zealand males are often hesitant to "put their hands up and ask for help", Barker says, and he couldn't have got through his treatment without the support of his family, friends and teammates.
He was very reluctant to talk about it publicly but wanted to alert other people who might notice something wrong but be too scared to ask for help.
"If your body is giving you some messages, go and get checked."
At end of last year, Barker had a secondary tumour removed from his lung and he says his most recent CT scan showed his body to be free of cancer.
He feels extremely lucky that he saw the right health professionals in time to get treatment and doesn't want others to delay getting checked out and miss their own chance.
"Everyone associates cancer with it being terminal and it doesn't need to be… there are plenty of cases where if it's diagnosed early enough there are ways around it or treatments.
"I was fortunate to get diagnosed early enough that I was able to beat it and fight it and hopefully live a full life."
Watch Dean and Mandy Barker's interview on TVNZ:
