3 days ago
- Health
- South China Morning Post
After cancer diagnosis at 35 and rapid weight gain, survivor fights to claim first Ironman
A month after his 35th birthday, Nidhin Valsan received unwelcome news: a diagnosis of late-stage non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.
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The senior officer with the Indian Police System was shaken, but he steeled himself for the fight of his life.
He would undergo gruelling treatment – and afterwards, train to complete his first triathlon: the Ironman 70.3 Goa.
He chronicles his return to wellness in his memoir Cancerman to Ironman: A Police Officer's Journey of Arresting Illness. It describes his battle with cancer, the support system that sustained him, his struggle with anxiety and depression, and training for the Ironman.
Valsan with his wife Remya and two children after finishing the Ironman 70.3 Goa in 2022. Photo: Nidhin Valsan
In 2020, Valsan had been posted to India's Goa state as superintendent of police. Soon after, he began getting chest pains and developed pain in his groin.
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'I would wake up in the middle of the night in agony. I was barely getting sleep and lost 4kg [8.8lb] within a month,' says the now 39-year-old, adding that he was in excruciating pain for three months.
