Conor Randall | They gave me 8 weeks to live now I'm cancer free

I'm upon me this is a podcast welcome to the show we have a special guest today Mr Connor Randall um you will have noticed as part of the description or the name of this podcast that Connor has been through the ringer you would say in the last couple of years but before we get into all that I just want to talk quickly about our sponsors so big thank you to the London hotel uh obviously we're coming up to Christmas time um so please book your Christmas parties down at the London hotel in Sydney in Paddington um also if you are looking to refinance your home if you are looking to release some Equity to buy an investment property or to do Renovations on your house please get in touch my details will be down in the description below let's get started Mr Connor Randall welcome thanks good to be here good to be here literally got yeah literally yeah yeah yeah yeah no got that uh no it's good to be here mate yeah thanks for having me um so let's before before we get into the The Big C word which is what this podcast will obviously all be about um talk to me just a little bit about your background and your upbringing way from so I'm from uh same neck of the woods as you yeah yeah we actually uh we actually went to school together you know if you have told me when we were at school that we'd be sitting here under these circumstances I would have yeah I wouldn't have believed it I thought i' had more odds would winning the lottery you know yeah but um but yeah I'm from uh Cambridge area in back in England so a little town called so yeah pretty normal upbringing you know nothing nothing crazy nothing special uh been a carpenter for 15 years now um and yeah two years ago my uh my life just completely changed so what was um quite interesting is uh I obviously met my my now wife mother of my two kids uh in Dubai and then we went back to New Market obviously new where we grew up yeah and um our other halfes became very like s sisters they did literally literally y yeah and um there were we were both moving to Sydney or supposed to be moving to Sydney at the same time yeah um sepid already left with with Isa yeah um and you and Mary were kind of packing up stuff getting ready to leave we were in like the little Annex yeah yeah and um I came over yours and we had a takeaway and a sort of like see you in a couple of weeks type you know yeah you know last kind of meal next time we do this we'll be in Australia um and then well I'll let you I'll let you tell the story but essentially you you found out that you were on the brink of death I was yeah I didn't know it at the time soon found out though I had a stomach problem that night yeah I did I remember it so this was sort of around sort of the September time I think um yeah out of nowhere so this is bit bit of a timeline so this is sort of late 2021 yeah we had flights booked to Australia I think like November 1st so sort of around early September time I started to um one night as always like we'd ordered to take away me and Mary and I got a bit of an appetite pigged out suddenly I was like oh I'm just a bit bit bloated this is weird like I haven't had this before didn't think any of it you know weeks go by doesn't get better doesn't get better I start losing weight you know I've never had anything wrong with me you know being a 29y old never been sick thought I was bulletproof didn't think anything of it oh it's going to sort itself out it would sort itself out you know ultimately it didn't I ended up going to A&E and this is sort of like early October now when did when did you finally go oh this is this is bad I'm going to go to I'm going to go to A&E yeah I think so it was actually we had our leave-in du um which I think was um I think we're talking like early October middle of October we had our leaveing DU on the Saturday you know up until that point I was having sleepless nights just in so much pain um I was waking up sort of vomiting like my stomach contents like not not pretty so at that point I was like okay something not something's not good shouldn't be doing this yeah um we had the leaveing DU on the Saturday on the Monday morning I was in A&E and yeah that was just the start of it all really you know I went into a& and Adam Brooks in Cambridge um and given the waiting times I was there for about 11 hours which was which was you know not fun yeah but they were actually going to send me home um I sort of explained what was happening to me and uh they were just so busy there but just as I was about to leave they were like oh actually we've had a request come through to give you a CT scan like we just want to see what's going on so I had that and then you know the day goes by this is now sort of I went there about 8:00 in the morning half 7 in the morning um after another sleepless night and this is about 8:00 p.m. in the you know in the evening and a guy comes grabs me takes me into a little side room and he sits me down and he goes um Okay so we've seen we've seen something on your CT scan we've seen what could be causing you know the issues I'm like all right okay like you know expecting them to just be like you just got a little blockage or you just got something in there you know and he was like we've seen that you've got a thickening in the wall of your stomach and I was like right okay and he's like this is only generally caused by one thing and then he goes do you want me to tell you what it is and I'm like think I've worked it out mate like you know and he was like could be cancer like it's probably cancer and at that point Point like when you hear that it just didn't feel real do you know what I mean like he said it to me and I I didn't feel it it was it just seemed so like Bonkers yeah like yeah like I'm 29 like what the yeah I was like no way anyway next thing I know like I'm in the emergency department I'm having like a tube shoved down my nose to go down my throat to like pump out the content to my stomach um yeah it was a it was a whole thing in the same night this was like about 45 minutes of him telling me I'm on a bed like holding something while I'm vomiting having tubes put down my down my nose yeah a whole ordeal you know quite a you end up just sitting there just being like how has this just happened you know how has this just happened you know and that was really just a reflection of like how the next expanse of time was going to go you know you basically just become a passenger and you're just along for the journey you know yeah so during that time when he mentions the CW to you yeah what's going like what's going through your head it it doesn't sink in you know I think I think at the time I think it was just a reflection of who I was at the time as well you know I felt a lot of anger I just felt angry at the world you know I was about to move to Australia you know I'd got engaged end of September I I had a you know I had a successful carpentry business which I gave up passed it on to be able to move to Australia you know I turned down the biggest job of my life to move to Australia you know I just um put a deposit down on a rental property like all these things that I was like everything's going in the right direction this is going to go in the right direction like these are all the things that are going to make me happy blah blah blah blah blah and then it just gets snatched away from me like l i remember having to sit in the hospital bed and cancel my flights and just be and this is like after coid you know I've been trying to get here for a long time and you know you come out out of coid and then at the end of the year when everything's opened up again you get handed like a a death sentence like literally you know at the time they didn't know how bad it was but yeah as time went on it yeah it wasn't great yeah so after that first night when when did you sort of realize that it was it was like really bad I think so the because it escalated super quick it escalated and I mean so there was like from from that moment I mean I went into hospital I was I was admitted for maybe like 3 4 days um in that time there was just a lot of Investigation going on you know a lot of tough conversations at the time they didn't know how bad it was you know there was a lot of talk of it being like a lymphoma you know lymphoma is much more common in younger people things like that much more treatable um so I was I was admitted for sort of like two or three days then I came out and then I just went through like this whole process of coming in going for a procedure so essentially they were just trying to trying to locate it you know it wasn't it wasn't a matter of like if we're going to find something it's when we're going to find something like it's not a case of yeah maybe it's oh no this is happening we just need to find it and um so that went on for about two weeks and then I had a procedure called endoscopic ultrasound so essentially they put a camera down your throat and uh they oh and with a fin aspiration so essentially they take a a thick biopsy from the entire thickness of my stomach cuz they saw where the thickening was but as they were inside my stomach they obviously used the ultrasound where you can sort of see through tissue and things like that and they saw that I'd had a tumor which had grown around the exit of my stomach and clamped it shut that was the cause of which was the cause of all the vomiting and everything so essentially I could eat and drink but once it entered my stomach like you know my stomach produce all the acid break it all down it just wouldn't go any further so that's when I started to get the acid reflux with the vomiting you know uh yeah it and then I went from 90 kilo down to I think when I started getting admitted into hospital I was down to about 75 so I the the weight loss started to be rapid you know um and yeah that's so it was about two we process once they once they did the ultrasound and they they saw the tumor that's when I got admitted um and that's when you know the operation and it all started so how so this unfolded in the space of a couple of weeks and you're leading up to Christmas yeah and then obviously yeah so we're we're sort of like early November now yeah so early November are you still optimistic at this point or um at this point I don't really know how bad it is you know I I was seeing Specialists and I was going to see private um uh Consultants during this time that I was out and you know whilst you know Adam Brooks were doing their own sort of Investigations I was getting second opinions third opinions and it all pretty much came down to you've got cancer most likely it's lymphoma it's you know one of the guys was like you know it's super treatable and I was like you know what are the cause what is this what is that and he just looked at me and just went as luck mate and I was just like thanks okay great feel load better how do I work on that how do I work on luck um and yeah so yeah it was it was pretty crazy cuz I remember when we well obviously friends family everyone starts talking about it and the way that it was I don't know the message was being passed around was I was thinking oh maybe maybe he'll be out in three months time like him like maybe it'll just delay them and they'll come out in February or or March or whatever that was my thinking yeah I think that's what I think that's what we were all thinking um I was like I still might make summer um but what was the what was the sit down moment for you when they were like um you're essentially knocking on death stor yeah so I was admitted into hospital um and there was just a there was just a period of time where obviously family were com in so when the Consultants would come in like there was a degree of separation between what they said and like sort of what I heard like you know my family and partner sort of acted as buffers before it sort of got to me but I remember there being a few times where um you know there's moments in particular where I remember you know laying in a hospital bed um my partner's laying over me just crying my mom is to the right of me laying over me just crying in front of me is just like a wall of doctors and you know the guy is the main doctor is sort of standing there and he's saying look it's a stage four tumor it's metastasized to the pancreas to the galbladder there's um nodules up in the abdominals you know we have to perform this operation so they were going to go in and try and remove the tumor but I remember moments like that you know where you've got F where you just witnessing like your loved ones like I remember hearing my aunt who had come to see me when she was hearing the news at the for the first time I remember hearing her just screaming down the hallway of the hospital that's when you're kind of like oh like this is real like you know this is crazy but like I said like at that once once you go into Hospital and once all this starts happening like you really are just along for the ride like it took a long time for me to be able to actually digest once yeah once the dust had settled to be able to sit and be like okay this is happening you know that whole time in hospital obviously I'm getting pumped for the drugs there's all sorts going on you know I'm I'm having operations so I'm not really with it a lot of the time so that passed quite quickly it wasn't until like that was over and I was at home that I was I then had to deal with it basically and stage four like how long does that give you so stage four basically just means that it's no longer where it originated from right so I got diagnosed with um I wrote it down uh a stage for uh an Adena carcinoma right um and it metastasized to um the pancreas around the galbladder I had um nodules up in my abdominal area um they gave me um between eight weeks was probably one of the shortest prognosis I got eight weeks um I got told I wouldn't make my 30th birthday um which was May in 2022 and the the longest one I got was 2 years which took me to October just gone so yeah so happy to still be here happy to prove all wrong you know yeah um but yeah so when you start hearing eight weeks when you start hearing you know so for me like obviously I've been in my profession for 15 years right I've I've leared to there comes a certain amount of knowledge and sort of you know when I meet people who are in the same sort of industry or who have got serious time in their profession you know I you learn to sort of respect what they have to say and you know I was in a I was in the medical environment and there was not a single doctor backing me you know they were all like this is bad don't look good like it's not looking good mate do you know what I mean and it's kind of like for me like to see people that are like in this business know what they're talking about to be like touch and go this yeah this is not looking good you know it it hits home you're like this is real this is happening so when you're going through this Whirlwind and obviously they they tell you you got stage four cancer your family are probably falling apart around you the doctors are telling you you're going to die yeah you got you got 8 weeks to 12 weeks to you know one guy up to two years but really it's like well it's coming like yeah it's coming um you you get sent home at one point after that yeah so um so I had a uh operation so they went in they basically went into to try and remove the tumor right um went in there realized that it was just too advanced they couldn't remove it without causing me serious damage basically you know they couldn't remove any of the metastasis or anything like that you know it was like say around pancreas super sensitive area so they couldn't remove it um so basically what I had a partial um bypass so essentially they um the exit of my stomach they basically blocked it off sewed it up and essentially created a new this is proper Layman for like not very scientific can't tell and they essentially just made me a new exit to the stomach directly underneath so I've got like a plug hole essentially so that was just done just so I could start eating and drinking again so this is like sort of early December now um how much do you weigh at this point at this point I'm I'm in I'm in the 60s I'm going down into the 60s I think I'm sort of around 63 kilo something like that so from 90 like when it all started happening and uh yeah so I was I was in hospital for about 8 days after that operation and then they send me home but looking like a skeleton oh yeah like did not great wasn't a good time for me um you not looking your best yeah not looking my best had had work yeah yeah it wasn't great um I got sent home and I was home for a week but um you know I've been in hospital for a long time up until this point a lot of drugs going through my system I've been getting fed through a um I had a pick line in which is so I've been getting fed through like a tpn substance basically just like all your electrolytes and stuff like that but now I had to eat and drink of my own accord and obviously I had all the swelling from the stomach and and from the operation so I basically was home for about a week without eating and drinking I you know I continued to vomit and I went I remember I had a um appointment with the surgeon a week after I was released went back into Hospital surgeon looked at me and was like are you you have to stay in like you are about to die like you know they ran my Bloods I just had super low levels of everything they were like you're so close to heart failure they were essentially the only reason you're living and breathing right now is because you're young like your body's just going for it you know but this isn't a space of about two months three months yeah yeah like I've gone from you've gone from being a normal human being doing your daytoday carpentry running your company ready to go to Sydney and then you're 27 kilos lighter yeah look like a skeleton been told you're going to like it's yeah all over get out of bed walk to the sofa that's all I can manage to do lay on on the sofa just like I have no energy I have nothing in me get up when it's bedtime go to bed like that was it and it was it was tough like being able to like look at yourself in the mirror and this isn't me yeah yeah you're like who is looking back at me who is looking back at me you know I remember the day that I went into to see the surgeon I remember looking at myself in the mirror before we went and my eyes had shrunk in their sockets you know cuz I was so dehydrated like I could just see space around my eyes and I was just remember thinking oh that's not good that's not good look what is happening you know and then obviously as soon as he took one look at me like he recognized it as well and was like yeah you have to stay in yeah F and are you in um are you in a fight or a flight mode at this point like what do you do you did you feel like there was like there was a way out um I think at this point I still was still just trying to process it you know it was all still happening so quickly um I yeah I wasn't much of an optimist I really wasn't you know as soon as as soon as I got diagnosed my you know my partner and my mom they started joining forums and they started reaching out to people to just try and find some sort of Hope and you know we heard stories of people getting through it and things like that but I just wasn't in the mindset to be able to even take any of that in you know I was just so focused on how I was feeling at that time and just how awful I was feeling I couldn't really think much outside of it you know it was happening at such a rapid Pace um but yeah I think it was once once I went back in and he kept me in I was in for another week um I remember then I came out and then I started to do better you know I I that once they hooked me up back into the hospital I was able to just to clear some things out and whatnot and then I was able to sort of start eating and drinking again so it was around then that I started to when I was at home constantly and I started to regain a little bit of strength that's when I could like really sit and just be like whoa like yeah what has just happened yeah I should have been in Sydney now on the beach somewhere um starting my New Life what um when did when did the like a a recovery program sort of start for you um so it was a few months on so I started my first round of chemotherapy so I come out of so when I come out of hospital and this for the second time this is like a week before Christmas so we sort of have Christmas I start my chemotherapy on the December 27th um 2021 so obviously new year was cracking yeah great um yeah it was really fun really really fun um first three months you know were just I was just in it I was doing I I was having uh full Fox chemotherapy so I was getting that every two weeks and I really wasn't at that that time you know Mary my partner from the get-go she was reading books you know she was doing the research you know she was Finding sort of you know these success stories these radical remission stories and you know she was trying to looking every single approach to try and keep you alive basically any string of Hope diet supplements the lot but I was just in such a dark place at that point you know I was felt a lot of resentment I felt a lot of anger just towards the world you know just how could this happen to me like just as everything was about to happen how can this happen to me do you know what I mean I just was feeling yeah I just I really wasn't through the acceptance phase um plus then you obviously tie in the chemotherapy which is not fun I'm quite lucky that I tolerated it really well you know I still was quite active and stuff like that but it was once the once everything slowed down you know I'd gone from being just 100 mph in my normal life to now like I'm on the sofa watching Netflix and YouTube for like a week at a time yeah like my my world stopped and slowed and you know once everyone started going back to work and I was just settling into like my new sort of normal you know that's when you know depression sort of really hit me um and sort of like the acceptance phase um but all the while Mary was just reading and learning and putting things in place which now like unbelievable like they changed my life and they really like helped me get through it but at that time so it took me till probably my my first cycle of chemotherapy which was three months it wasn't until I got to the end of that before I really started to implement like alternative methods So what had Mary and obviously your mom been looking into for these alternative methods to for you and also for you to start thinking I'm going to listen to them and start doing it so a big thing that we we big thing that helped us sort of pinpoint my cause of cancer right was you know I'd had every test Under the Sun once you get a diagnosed at my age you know it flags up to a lot of different sort of institutes you were getting blood tests sent all over the world oh yeah yeah I had samples sent to America like I was going to um different hospitals within England you know I had the Cambridge genetics Department ring me up they couldn't find a single cause for my cancer like they couldn't find it you know they I remember they rang me up and they were like if we saw your blood samples and we saw your tissue samples and this was happening to you and this wasn't happening to you we would tell you that you you're all good like they were like so it's still down as cancer of Unknown Origin basically but we started looking at the type of person that I was leading up to it you know my whole life I've been someone who suffered from chronic chronic stress like I really was not in a great mental state like you wouldn't know it if you saw me like you know just chatting I've always just liked being around people always been positive and things like that but within my own head you know it was a different story in your head when you were on your own or just just in general you know just in general from you know experiences as a child from what I was exposed to you know and just how I learned to deal with that and what it manifested into into adult life like I was just completely blind to it I had no idea that it was having that effect on me so once I got diagnosed me and Mary pretty quickly was like this is this is down to me like this was just down to like how I lived my life in my head you know so we really started pinpointing and researching well Mary did um mental health and the effects that the brain can have on the body you know she started reading uh books like radical remission and and books called cured where you know you speak about these people that have had these wild diagnosis and gone on to live a long happy cancer-free life and the mental side of it just jumped out you know she was reading these these books and was just she was Ling it straight to you this is Conor this is him to a te this is Connor you know and what were some of those things like what were some of the things that used to go on in your head I just I I attached a lot of sort of like my selfworth to material things you know certain having wanting to achieve certain things to achieve a certain degree of like happiness Within Myself obviously once I once I got diagnosed and like you're about to you feel like you're about to die suddenly all these things that you have valued and you goes out the window goes out the window and you realize you just been chasing pointless meaningless like so I did buy my first I bought my first rent or in between um that week that I had out of hospital and I only did it because I was like well at least I'll have something to leave my partner right but that was something that I busted my ass over and I obsessed over because I thought it was going to give me a certain feeling when I achieved it and I remember getting the keys you know this was like just before I started or just after I started chemotherapy I remember I got the keys and I was like I couldn't give a like this is not important yeah and it really made me evaluate sort of what I found myself worth through you know and so that was a big thing for me it must have been quite difficult to navigate because you've spent obviously due due to whatever happened in your upbringing um you've got this obsession with success yeah probably probably very similar we we went to dinner that night and I didn't know much about your background you didn't know much about mine and it was like we were very similar in our mind mindsets but also like I've learned as well since having kids and stuff like that that it's just not the most important thing yeah um how do you navigate um I don't know spending the first 29 years of your life thinking in a certain way and then obviously death knocks on the door and you go oh that was all that was all pointless you know really yeah it was it was just a whole process really of me having to you know I once we pinpointed this like I knew it like when when I was sitting in the hospital bed like I knew that it was down to my mind and my mental health you know when I think back to certain points in my life you know while I was by myself while I was driving to work and just the noise in my head and like how my head was just screaming at me and it was just my normal like I just thought that was how everyone was you know and it and it isn't like it's not normal and it's I think it was going through that sort of process of acceptance and then you know going into like the more alternative methods and when I eventually reached the point when I felt like I could talk to somebody you know cuz I had barriers up for a long time but eventually why why do you think that was like why do you I just didn't believe it you know I thought I thought all this Wellness stuff was just a load of I thought it was just a load of mumbo jumbo just some pretentious stuff do you know what I mean like I just I just was just had this attitude of like I'm all right I'm all right in America see I don't need it yeah I don't need it I've been to see like a therapist before but it was you know not saying that everyone is going to be like this but it was just a lady in her living room you know and I just did I didn't get any benefit from it you know so that didn't help me you they they actually say a lot of the time um finding the right therapist is the most important thing and the way that that person delivers that session is super important because I remember when um well foxy would talk about it the guy off um SS who's an ex-marine s SPS Soldier and he he just didn't couldn't relate and that person couldn't relate to him either because they' obviously they hadn't been through any trauma themselves they were just some like normal person that had had a normal life and decided they wanted to become a therapist and he had to go and see someone who would take him for a walk in the woods and you know he'd be out in the outdoors and you know whatever that would help him you know it took a certain person to be able to talk to the right you know the right individual yeah and I can definitely account for that now I mean so yeah I I just had balls up I just thought you know like meditation and stuff like that I was just like I can't do that like it's not for me you know that was just my attitude across the board really so my partner on the other hand you know believes hey heavily in that sort of stuff so she was always sort of recommending it to me and I had friends you know telling me you know you should go talk to someone you should go talk to someone and I just I just needed to get to that point myself really and I think you know once I was sort of into like the second cycle of chemo you know um I just I was just so low that I was like you know what if it's going to help I'm going to do it do you know what I mean I just got I just bottomed out I was like it can't get exhausted like if you're if you're going to you know if you're going to give me a thread of hope I'm just going to tug on it and I'm I'm going to see where it goes because anything's better than this you know so I just got to that point where I was happy to go speak to someone and she really sort of unlocked my I really was able to then sort of see how the things that happened to me manifested into my adult life you know I was able to see like the reason behind my habits and you know my traits and my thoughts and I was able to sort of step back and sort of step away from my programming a little bit and understand and see and be like oh what was I doing right I was able to see the bad thoughts I was able to tap into a different way of thinking and be like oh I can think like this I don't need to think like like that and that was sort of the start of it really for me what was it like that first session um emotional yeah it was definitely emotional um but I got a real sense of sort of like how you just mentioned before foxy I sort of just walking into her office just being in that sort of environment seeing how she presented herself you know I said to myself before because it was down as hypnotherapy right and I was like oh I just going to be someone like waving some Medallion or something like that like you know what I mean that's what I thought it was going to be like but it wasn't that at all right it wasn't that at all and I remember I remember before I went in there I just said to myself I'm just going to give myself to this process I'm just going to let this person do their job and I'm going to let them and I'm just you know I'm going to drop my walls so I went in there and yeah I just sort of it was emotional I had I had multiple sessions with her you know over time but I found such benefit you know being able to sort of reach that sort of meditative State bring up past emotions and be able to sort of analyze the situation and you know the circumstances around them and understand how that led me to feel a certain way and be a certain way you know it it was it was transformative yeah so at this point you're you're going through the chemotherapy and then you're starting to adopt um for yourself alternative sort of routes and avenues and and and so what so alongside the chemotherapy and and the other therap the hypnotherapy what what else were you what else was Mary begging you to do so yeah yeah so so immediately I cut all sugar out of my diet you know cut all refined sugars everything like that that came out you know cancer metabolizes glucose right loves the stuff so I just cut it out of my diet I started eating as cleanly as I possibly could you know um we would just buy organic food as best as we could I started juicing a lot of veg um you know I'd have a regular supplement routine sort of morning lunch and and evening um and then sort of alongside it as well you know I was taken a lot of sort of THC oil um which I was given you know by a guy you know there's always there's always a guy um that to me was for for me on my journey you know not necessarily recommending it to people but it was instrumental for me um just for how it helped my mental health you know being able to sort of relax me um and I actually started to take it alongside my chemotherapy mostly because obviously it was super strong it would put you on a different planet if you if you really wanted it to and when I was going into oncology to have the chemo attached to me I wanted to be on a different planet you know I didn't want to be there feeling it so I would take I would take a ID take the THC i' put my headphones in I would put my hat over my eyes and I would sit there while they hook me up I'd sit there for about 3 hours have the first load put through me and i' would get like a pump attached to me and I'd be sent home for another two days um but the whole time I was in hospital I was just headphones in and I was taking this stuff but I soon found that actually it stopped me from vomiting it it eradicated for me all side effects that the the chemotherapy brought really in terms of sickness and that was a big game Cher for me and it really sort of helped my mental health whilst I was going through through the treatment cuz they give you a lot of medication which does a lot of things to your body you know um and I got to a really dark place on that medication you know I really did think about ending my life at one point it was it was really really dark and I remember going in to have the chemotherapy taken off once it was finished and I remember them asking me how you know how did you find it and I said to them I was like look physically I can deal with it it's fine like I'm going to work you know I'm I'm back sort of in normal life but my mind is terrible and they were just like oh that's the steroids we're giving you and I was like what do you mean and they were like it helps your body process the chemotherapy but also you know they're not great for for the mind and once I heard that that was it I um that was sort of like into my second cycle so I'm already starting to do the alternative stuff but I'm still in this really dark space I actually started to stop taking those medications that they gave me now I'm not advocating people do that it was an intensely um you know it was my decision it was a very intimate decision that I had to come to myself you know I didn't do it immediately I did it over time because you know if they tell me it's supposed to help my body process it then suddenly I don't want to cut it out and put myself in a bad situation but the THD that I was taking was removing any symptom that I was having so it it made it easier for me to come off this medication as I came off this medication my mind got so much stronger those dark thoughts went away and suddenly I started to really feel the benefit of the work that I was doing mentally you know I had uh one of my aunts she would come around and meditate with me every day you know she's big into spirituality big into meditation so she started to come around and we'd meditate for even just half hour you know but at first you know I bet you were like the whole time I'm sitting down I'm like my ass is hurting on these wood floors my back hurts I'm thinking about what I want for dinner later you know this isn't this isn't for me I've done it and your your mind drifts off and it and it takes you quite a number of sessions for you to sit there and just be able to be in your thoughts rather than just drifting off and thinking about and it's all about reentering it yeah and it's okay like you can drift off a little bit but as long as you're aware of it and you can just bring it back but it is a struggle with the stff you really got to train yourself it you know it's a skill and like I still struggle with it now you know but um but those were the sorts of things that I was doing so it was Diet you know it was massive massive onto mental health um you know uh and yeah it was just trying to and reading educating ourselves on alter further alternative therapies and and looking at sort of testimonials of people that have gotten through it and just anything that you could do to sort of bolster your belief in your situation basically so you and are you past that you're past that 12 week point right where they were like you've only got eight weeks oh yeah I mean so you know I started just knocking those prognoses you know out the park I was like eight weeks it's like 30th birthday yeah you know so I yeah I was feeling good like and and my scan results you know I will say my scan results from the first one were positive from the first session from the from the very first scan that I had so you have a scan at the end of each three months first one that I had showed a reduction all around happy days and then the second one showed that the nodules in my uh abdominals were resolved you know great fantastic you know good news but even then like when I got that news by the doctor I remember saying to it I was at work at the time cuz I on the week that I was off I would go back to work right and I would just do little jobs that I could get done in a week and I remember he rang me and he told me he was like oh the he was like the nodules in the abdominals appear to have resolved and then he was like and there's a reduction round and I just remember saying to him so if it gets to a point where it's small enough would you be able to operate and he just goes oh no operation an operation is is not an option for you this isn't about curing you this is just about giving you time right and that's what he said and that's what he said to me down the phone and I'm like at a customer's house just like fitting their floor just on outside being like Oh okay thanks Fu cheers and it was just such a kick in the nuts to like you know I've just had this great news but then it was just completely overshadowed and that was one thing that I really sort of learned through this process is you're going to have a you know if you get diagnosed you're going to have a lot of stuff said to you you know and it's take it or it it's not going to be nice you know and you know I had some dark stuff said to me which put me in a bad head space but you just yeah you just got can't be can't be helpful regardless of how the diagnosis is they Sur the way they deliver that message is going to have obviously a massive effect on how you're feeling which you know like I've been in the fitness industry for a long time before I come to Sydney and the way that you know a lot of our training was in emotional intelligence trying to figure out how someone are feeling when they walk through the front door because you want that person to repeat and come back to the gym or come back to doing their Fitness routine or you know get that turning key point where they do start to lose weight or whatever it is but like you got to wait until they're ready to process that right but you can't you can't just turn up like if someone's if someone's like oh you know I don't feel like training today it's like all right well let's let's sit and have a chat yeah and we'll discuss how you're feeling today rather than waste the hour but let's but if a doctor's going to deliver results like that that that's going to the the amount of stress and pressure is going to reduce your immune system oh yeah and have a negative effect on how you're going to potentially possibly cure it yeah like yeah did you find that a lot of doctors were like that oh the I learned after that I learned after that to ask no questions I learned to have as yeah that when they would ring me and give me my results they'd be like oh you know um cuz yeah all my scam results were good news they'd be like it's good news it's holding stable or it's reduced but I'll be like okay thanks very much they like you got any questions no nope like you know or after each round of chemotherapy they give you a call just to see like how you tolerated it and i' be like yeah all good you know I'm talk like my phone conversations would be when I'd look at the call log afterwards you're talking like seven eight seconds like yeah yep cheers all good y thanks cuz I learned my lesson that day that I I'm just not going to was yeah I'm not going to ask because I don't want to hear it you know yeah you know I feel fine so don't tell me that I'm not CU he could have just said you know it's those have been resolved that's really good news you know reductional round but then you know you had to just hit me with the old uh you're never going to be killed hey maker and I was like great cheers so you're um you in an optimistic State at this point oh yeah 100% like I I a long time ago realized that this has actually been the biggest blessing to my life life that I ever could have hoped for you know and to be sitting here now as I am like I really wouldn't have changed any of it you know I really had to be taken to that point of bottoming out and just thinking it was all gone for me to really sort of work on yourself yeah just wake up you know I took I took a lot in my life for granted the people in my life my partner you know I just took it for granted I just wasn't aware of what great people I was surrounded by what a great partner I had what a great family I had you know and it and it took for this to happen for those people to sort of rally around me for me to realize that and then for me to be sitting here now with the results that I've had you know through all the prognosis you know as much as I have had immense help you know I've also done this myself you know cuz without that help without being willing to take it on and go on the journey you know I wouldn't be here and it fills me with immense Pride you know and I am proud of myself you know and I find happiness in just the simple things in life now you know just yeah it's and my mind is so much quieter than it used to be like I think back to how I used to think and it's like it's crazy like I'm I'm still very much a work in progress but like I've really sort of put in the hours on myself you know and I'm really am feeling the benefit of it you know so it's a shame that it takes most people to bottom out get diagnosed before they actually do something about it yeah you know I really was just a very very average person nothing special about me but when push come to shove like I I've just dug to a level that I didn't know I had and like it's been great you know as much as that was you know a baptism Through Fire sort of thing coming out of it now like I'm a different person and all for the better you know my family is closer I'm closer to just the people around me I'm living in Australia now I made it do you know what I mean it's when it's amazing what you can actually do when you pushed and you actually apply yourself you know so run me through the um you're obviously like doing a lot better now run me through what your day like what your normal day looks like from a um from a health perspective like the way the way that you start your morning yeah all the way to the end of your day that might might benefit anyone not someone that's just like had some sort of like cancer scare or anything but anyone that's like I don't know losing focus or doesn't have a sense of direction or feels a bit lost and they're talking badly about themselves in their own head what what what is your what does your morning through to the evening kind of look like from a from a normal day for you now so found out one of the big things for me actually was to just give myself time in the mornings um back when I was like working full time like pre all of this you know I would get up half hour before I had to be on site you know it's up close on you know takeway coffee sandwich on the go driving to work you know you get to work and suddenly you're like 45 minutes ago I was in bed like how am I here now you know it was allowing myself time in the morning to just sort of wake up you know now I Implement meditation into my morning so as soon as I get up I don't look at my phone you know I leave that alone you know it doesn't matter so I'll get up I'll go meditate for probably half hour hasn't you know I've built up to that you know and then I'll start with five minutes yeah yeah yeah yeah but these are things like it's easy for me to sit here now like two years in and be like well this is my routine but like these are like years ago these are like little incremental things that I started to do and over time they've just given me great benefit you know at the time I had no idea that they would but you know just little changes so giving myself time in the morning to sort of meditate to have a coffee to have a proper breakfast to be like okay I've got time before I need to leave for work you know just maybe watch a a YouTube video on something that I enjoy you know that just sort of I watch Like A guy that rebuilds cars and I found enjoyment in that and I would just sit down and I'd have my breakfast and I'd watch that and like oh that was great and then I'm like right time for work just little things like that giving yourself a little bit of rest before the day starts um I'd take I'd do a uh celery juice um juice as soon as I wake up so after the meditation I'll go in I'll have that and then I'll take my supplements um and then yeah I'll sort of have my chilled morning I'll go into my Working Day and the whole time like I'm just super mindful of my state the whole time you know because I have that liability my you know my mind was such a wild animal for so long like it doesn't just go away you know I do need to monitor it progress yeah I do need to stay aware of my traits and my Tendencies as that goes on it's funny because like you know I've got two kids under three and me I'm we I think I'm very lucky that me and sep like to have our morning like like what you say like a bit of space so when we wake up in the morning sep sep leaves the house goes immediately to the gym she gets her hour she stops off grabs a takeaway coffee she gets a bit of rest bite in her brain you know she gets to just after after having a workout it's like you can attack the no matter what problems come your way if you don't have that in the morning suddenly for some reason your decision making is worse your your brain's a bit foggy you're stressed out when you start the day doing something really hard or going through some sort of Mind mindfulness meditation whatever it is um it just sets you up to be a better person that day absolutely absolutely I mean I yeah when I meditate in the morning I mean if You' have told me a couple of years ago this is what I'd do I'd laugh at you and be I'd never do that but like I you know I'll sit there and I would literally just be like okay how do I want to be today like what do I want how do I want to think how do I want to act what am I not going to allow you know what old habits and old behaviors am I not going to allow past my awareness you know really sort of setting the day with that intention I found to be massive for me you know um and then yeah I sort of carry that through into the day I always try and get some time for myself so if I get back for work I'll go for a run or I'll go for a walk um read a book I started writing in a journal start that has has given me massive benefit um and recommendation by my partner um so yeah I mean that was a big thing you know just being able to just write down how you feel how you felt that day what sort of thoughts you CU you know you do it long enough you can look back and you can sort of see things that crop up and you're like oh okay I think about this quite a bit I think about this quite a bit why do I think about that there's like a pattern that com yeah 100% and it can just help you sort of like understand things about yourself and then yeah in the evenings you know I really try not to just be on my phone you know I I really I mean when this first happened when I got diagnosed I erased social media off my phone you know I realized right then and there that that wasn't going to be healthy quite for a while yeah yeah sto posting funny enough yeah yeah it weren't up to much um but just I just become really conscious of things outside things that could affect me and I just sort of know what's good for me and what isn't you know um and yes it's it's been great and you think like do you do you put um a lot of those things that you now do which is like a normal like obviously like you when you guys moved over you stayed with us and I just saw you go through your day all the supplements that you take and all that type of thing um obviously the chemotherapy was an absolute Lifesaver for you yeah um and then luckily it helped you get to the point where you'd built up enough strength that you were like okay like I think I can attack this and you were clever enough to realize probably through going through the hypnotherapy that you were like oh I don't want to listen to these negative things that I'm being told so I'm just going to ignore those uh and and and think about the positive and then obviously Mary was having a good influence on you with all these other other things that you would have never have done the year before yeah um when so when you when you move to Australia you still have cancer at that point Y yeah so when I so yeah it was it was a big decision to come off of a chemotherapy but I think we saw you know just as a bit before that when I was waiting to have my scans sometimes I would be off chemo for 3 4 weeks um and in that time I would see myself bounce back pretty quick my body started to feel good my mind started to feel good so it was from having those moments that yeah we start that's when I really got the confidence to to go alternative and to come off I started to see CU as soon as I went back on CH thy I started feeling bad again I started to you know it was probably essential for me at the start but then I personally made the personal decision I personally got to the point where I started to see it as like a bit of a ball and chain you know it was holding me back a big motivation obviously to come off with treatment as well a lot of it was I just wanted to have some Taste of normal life you know um I was Des I was desperate for that yeah I was I wanted to have the pick line out of my arm I wanted to just not have to go to the hospital every week so I think that was a big motivation but then as time went on and I started to just feel good and then I had two more scans before I came out here and they were all good it was all holding stable um the metastasis were still there I think I was about sort of 60% resolve potentially so the abdominals was gone the metastasis was was decreasing around the pancreas and the and the g bladder but it was still present the tumor was holding stable um but that was enough we were like that's good enough like we've seen that and that was without treatment we were like we've seen that doctor told me I was going to be dead 6 months ago we can at least hold this thing like in its place let's just go like what's holding us back you know and yeah we big decision to oh yeah it's a big decision like crazy decision like you know family and that were like oh are you sure sure like is that the best thing but like you know you just got to do what's right for you and it was you know it was my dream like our Dream to come out here and it was just like we had seen so much we had read so much in the books of people that just went for it you know and just saw the benefits and we were like maybe this is my thing you know let's just give it a go and let's give it a you know we came out here and yeah I went back in May had a scan in May and it showed that the metastasis was all gone um and the tumor was completely stable um and that was all just from being out here and just living my best life you know just enjoying being here taking it all in yeah yeah like it sounds like I live like a monk but I really don't like I I definitely a little bit half yeah yeah I mean well yeah half M part time yeah yeah but like it it really I've adapted it to my lifestyle you know just the diet the no sugar that sort of stuff just second nature to me now you know seemed a lot when I first did it but it's not a problem but yeah from just being out here we realized pretty soon that we made the right decision and then you had a little bit bit of a bump oh yeah did just spend six weeks in hospital um yeah which I came out of about two weeks ago uh completely let's let's just run cuz the like when I picked you up I was just when you explained the situation to me I was just like holy like what the just happened yeah so about probably probably about two months ago now I started to experience symptoms um I went through like a bit of a it just shows really that how much you actually do need to maintain your mental health you know because You' think oh he's had all these great results he's moved to Australia he must just be on cloud n the whole time but you know eventually you do return to Earth and life sort of takes hold of you and I definitely went sort of unconscious to some of my old habits and my old stresses and worrying about money you know believe it or not having cancer and then mve to one of the most expensive cities on the planet is not great for the wallet so I uh I definitely started to stress about money and stuff like that again once I started to you know allow stress into my life um to that sort of level again I started to experience sort of symptoms and changes in my body that led to my eyes going yellow like really not cool stuff um you know and then we got got to a point where we were like okay you know we were in denial for a little while CU just the fear comes back you know when you start seeing certain things or like my body became really itchy you know these are new symptoms that I hadn't had before fear denial you know the work sort of comes back but then we know we decided we were like right okay let's just get some awareness you know let's just find out what's going on went to the doctor on the Friday no on the Thursday you know but before we went in based on our past experience we knew what we were getting ourselves in for you know I'd done enough work now to be like you do realize as soon as we dip our toe back into this realm like we're going to have some stuff said to us that we're not going to like yeah yeah and we sort of like armed oursel against that and were prepared for that so I sort of took myself to the doctor you know without Mary without Mary you know and I got I'm really worried this doesn't look good blah blah blah blah he put me through for like an emergency CT scan so that was on the Thursday on the Friday I had a CT scan on the Sunday I was admitted into hospital um so I was in yeah the NorthShore for well they said I'd be in and out within a week and I was in there for six weeks um but yeah basically as soon as I went in again and they learned about my diagnosis and whatnot your past records and Stu my past records you know you show doctors they were like it's funny when you show a doctor my medical history they sort of do a bit of a double take and they just sort of look at me and they're like are you sure like you know so given the symptoms that I was sort of showing um it didn't take long for the old you know you should consider going back to England this isn't looking good given your prognosis you have an incurable cancer like I cannot tell you how much longer you've got left you know I started all of this started coming back to me but only this time I didn't have my mom my partner whatever family member was present at the time as a buffer before it got to me you know and I had to sit and have these conversations you know with them myself how did you handle it it was tough but to be fair I actually handled it pretty well you know I I really put the work in mentally like I really I knew what I was going to face you know and I knew within my body that I didn't feel like I was in any danger you know I wasn't having any pain or anything like that and I also sort of had a bit of a confidence of like right well I've done this before I've proven that I've done it I've got the test I've got the scientific results to prove that I have done this myself so I just had to keep reminding myself of that basically and you know meditation was a massive massive asset for me during that time to just keep my mind level to not let you know my mind run wild with you know speculation you know you know to have a doctor come in and say those things for you and like when he's the head of the gastro Ward and he's got his own private practice next door you know and to just sit there and be like no no like no no like it takes a lot you know cuz you don't want to be just plain Fain in ignorance like in denial like you have to be totally aware of what it could potentially be and what is happening to you but still within that be like it doesn't matter the outcome is going to be the same so I went through you know six week process I had ended up having like an external drain fitted so essentially I I had a blockage on my bile duct so I had a drain fitted so for about three four weeks I was carrying round I had a I had a little shoulder bag which had a just a bag full of just Minards in it basically like it wasn't great it was not a good look good yeah it was not great um but from that you know got through it very proud of myself and yeah had some pretty amazing results at the end of it to be honest and let's talk run through the results cuz I think it's pretty wild yeah yeah so obviously the whole time I was in there once they saw my diagnosis it was okay it's the cancer it's killing him like he doesn't have long you know alarm Bells going off um but once I started having biopsies taken they all started coming back negative they all started coming back negative for cancer it even got to the point where the hospital questioned the original Hospital's diagnosis and they were leaving it open to speculation that I'd been misdiagnosed based on the fact of how I was looking in front of them with what was written on this piece of paper um so yeah the weeks keep going by you know um I keep having more biopsies more biopsies you know the doctor will come and see me and be like right we've got a huge team meeting about you tomorrow you know head of this department that department they're all coming in they're all like deciding and wondering what to do next still I was having biopsies still they were coming back negative So eventually they installed a temporary stent um so basically to just hold my barck open and you know I had pet scan which basically like SC SC your whole body and it can pick up sort of cancerous cells and how active they are um so about 3 weeks ago um I got discharged from hospital um you know once once the stent was in doing its thing I sort of went back to normal and they could let me out MH I had a follow-up consultation with oncology who wanted to just basically just put me on their books and and you know get me up to speed with what could happen and I remember I sat down in there and she was like well all of your results have come back negative for Cancer all of your biopsies come back negative even the ones around the blockage on the barduck things like that and she was like and your pet scan um so you know the scan which shows active cancer cells within your body she was like your pet scans come back showing no active sign of disease in your body whatsoever so she was like you don't actually need us which and you know at that point to hear that it was just like crazy and then a lady comes in who saw me when I first went into hospital when I was all yellow and stuff and was like wanted to see me and see how I was getting on and then there was another knock at the door and it was one of the head gastro doctors who came in and just sat in front of me and just went I just wanted to come and put a face to the person that we've all been watching for the past six weeks she was like we have all been watching you behind the scenes you are a special case you know they didn't ask me what I've been doing or anything like that but just that sort of like nod that acknowledgement of like holy yeah we've done you shouldn't be here yeah yeah like fair play you know and that was pretty much almost to the date of the 2ear prognosis when I was told pretty much guarantee he will not make it past this I'm sitting there having doctors come in to meet me to be like fair play mate like fair play you know so well done M I basically cheers to some water levitated out of that blooming oncology office you know couldn't touch me after that it was great it felt great that is just that is just nuts that is it inspiring like it's just like you I don't think anyone knows what what what's going to go through their heads or whether they're going to go into a fight or flight mode when they get a diagnosis like that yeah and I think a lot of people just give up yeah so kudos to you mate for persevering and looking at every possible Avenue after a little bit of time every possible Avenue to go down um what what would you say what would you say to someone not necessarily someone that's like been diagnosed with cancer but someone that's been given some bad news um any any pieces of advice that you'd give to be like like you you got to I heard a thing where Jordan peton said this the other day and he said he said one of the worst things that can happen to you is you get told that you've got cancer and you've got a choice at that point and it's either sit there and cry and moan and winge and or the and the alternative is death yeah so you've either got to pick yourself up and give it a crack or you just got to give up and and let it take over yeah what would you what would your advice be to someone that's got just had a really bad news on on anything you know they could have lost a limb or whatever you've basically been handed like an opportunity right and I know it sounds you know if You' have told me two years ago this is an opportunity i' would have been like jump out the window you know what I mean but you really have been given an opportunity to sort of Show Yourself who you who you really are you know and you know you've you've sort of been given an obstacle worthy of the person that you're going to become you know like sitting here now after going through all of that I wouldn't wish it any different you know but it was a conscious effort to make it that way you know you can make you know the worst thing that happened to you into the best thing you know you can do it it takes work doesn't just happen immediately but also you need to know that these tough times I think it's very easy when something bad happens to you you think that this is it for the rest of your life like I had times where I was like well this is it this is me this is it but as time went on and I started to believe in a different future you know these times are only temporary if you make them so do you know what I mean like it took for me to change for me to real realiz that but it is only temporary you know and through this process there's obviously been a lot of people that have been with you by your side helped you out yeah um who are those people and what would you say to them so I mean first and foremost I mean Mary my partner has just been from the get-go talk about somebody who was just completely stoic in like their belief of he's going to get through this you know to have somebody in your corner from like go just saying he's going to do it he's going to get through this was Monumental for me you know even when my family was falling to pieces Mary was still like no he's going to do this he's going to do this and like don't get me wrong she had her wobbles but I mean you're talking like one or two times I really saw her lose it over this time and you know and she's completely entitled to you know the emotion that she was holding on to but even still she did the research on the diet on the mental health everything that I do now I do at her recommendation you know and there they things that I've grown to love and to value in my life you know so and my family as well rallied around me you know I became so much closer to to my family my friends you know yeah it's just been everyone's been amazing you know I'm here it's very easy for me to sit here and be like I I I and me me me and I made it here and I beat it but I always had a team of people behind me who were just completely backing me and just doing whatever they could to care for me and to make my time easier and to help me in any way they can and yeah I am eternally grateful to those people like it it didn't go unnoticed and I feel incredibly grateful to have all of those people in my life all my friends all my family you know my amazing partner yeah I'm I feel incredibly grateful and I feel great to be in a position now where I can actually realize it and see it you know cuz I it was it was always there but I just didn't know it I was just so blindfolded by my own and my own ambition you know that I just I didn't know but it was there the whole time and uh it's great to finally be able to sort of recognize it and see it and to say thank you to those people you know awesome awesome and what does the future look like for Mr Conor Randall do you know what I always thought you know before all this I'm a Carpenter that's just my lot like I you know that's it but after getting through this like how can you not believe that you can be capable of anything you know and I think I definitely want to start be an astronaut oh yeah you know you know got to be a little bit realistic but you know I think for me like I definitely want to start being um you know I'm sort of getting back onto social media now and I sort of want to I sort of want to be that person that I would have needed two years ago you know cuz there wasn't a lot out there and you know there was a there was a young man that that my mom found some hope with who had the same diagnosis as me and uh it was same age as me lived up north and he helped my family at the start you know um I do the celery juice today because of him like he's the one that recommended all that sort of stuff um but he sadly passed away so I just want to you know give a big thanks to that guy you know Chris he was fantastic um but I want to be sort of a success story for these people going forward of like you can do this um and yeah I'm just trying to navigate my way through that now you know it's I'm dipping my toe into a world I have no experiencing but all I can go off is what I've been through and you know what I'm continuing to go through you know so that's sort of where I want to take this it's exciting and where so if you're obviously going to start sharing some of some of your some of the things that you do on a daily basis and your rituals and and how you sort of live your life now how did people get hold of you or so look into that I have been pretty you got account yet yeah I I set up a Tik Tok account about a half hour before you picked me up for this so um yeah you'll be able to find me uh just at Connor Randall so c n o r. Randall r a n d a l I'm sure they'll put me in on the the podcast but I'll be the guy with no content and no followers um so if you're the first follower that be great yeah but I will be um uploading content yeah daily routines sort of anyone who's got any question questions who's sort of going through the same sort of thing you know I can give advice on how I navigated that point in my life um and you know I'm more than happy to go into more depth about sort of the diagnosis and that sort of process amazing well thank you for sharing your story and uh and getting it all out there well done for still you know BL being around we'll give you a gold gold the gold ones gold blue Peter PES um but yeah M absolutely amazing and and great to have you as un Conor apprciate my life as well mate so just just awesome awes thanks thanks for having me and uh don't forget to like And subscribe if you need any help or you've got any any questions for Conor just reach out in the comments and we'll get we'll get back to you as quickly as we can cheers guys thanks

Channel: Ross Hanrahan

Views: 241,791

Keywords: Fitness, Business, Lifestyle

Id: I0Jh3zP-DdM

Length: 71min 39sec (4299 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 14 2023