share with you some experiences I had a
couple of years ago with some serious
health setbacks and the title of my
speech is health resilience and the
motto in his plan or be planned for
because I seriously believe and we saw
some examples of it today that you can
be in charge when it comes to your
health my name is John McNamara I was
born in the island of curacao which is
on the Dutch Caribbean tropical island
when I was 11 years old I moved to the
Netherlands I studied there I worked
there and during the time when this
story starts I was fishing with my
brothers I was working abroad a lot in
Eastern Europe in Russia and I’m still
working abroad a lot in Europe and also
in Turkey now this band of brothers as I
will call it was fishing in 1997 and we
are fishing on pike and pike is a fish
it swims in sweet water in rivers and
lakes and the interesting thing about
this butter is you need to find it it’s
waiting somewhere it’s waiting for its
prey to pass by all its waiting
preferably for your hook to pass by so
as an angler together with my brothers I
was walking and walking with my casting
rod trying to find this Pike because
it’s waiting somewhere and
takes hours ladies in seven hours
fishing on Park and after a while some
urgency in my bowels build up and there
is no public toilet around for miles so
I had to find a tree I sat down behind
tree I defecated and this came with some
noise ladies and gentlemen I will spare
you the details it was a bit of
splattering a bit of diarrhea I had is
already for quite a while for me it was
relatively normal but your brothers
ain’t your brothers if they do not
comment upon this immediately so they
were screaming that yummy thing what on
earth are you doing behind that tree
what noise is that are you frying an egg
yeah you should go to a doctor brother
it was really the first time someone
told me you should go to a doctor and as
a matter of fact ladies and gentlemen
during that time I I was traveling a lot
and I was consuming all sorts of food I
was not really familiar with I had to
have my calorie intake every day and
just keep in mind I’m a vegetarian
so sometimes in some countries it is
really difficult so I ate all sorts of
food and I just thought okay this
defecation problems that I have it’s
some sort of virus you know it will pass
over it will it’s it’s a temporary thing
on top of that of course I’m a man I’m a
match one yeah I don’t go whining to a
doctor this is a problem many men have
women will go to doctors man postponed
visits to doctors yeah so I went to
doctor
and at the age of 40 I was diagnosed
with colon cancer and if you get this
sort of diagnosis cancer then you end up
in a rollercoaster it goes down and you
get all sorts of messages from the
medical specialists mr. Mason you need
an operation
mr. Mason before the operation you need
radiation and after the operation mr.
Mason you need two chemical treatment
and mr. Mason one more thing after the
operation probably you will have a
lifelong storm so these were the sort of
messages that you get when you are
diagnosed with colon cancer in that time
during that time so I was really
desperate I thought well I’m 40 years
old what about the quality of my life I
was a sportsman I swam a lot thinking
about the stoma is really a nasty idea
and then I decided okay what shall I do
shall I wait as a sitting duck to see
what happens or shall I wait as the pike
for the hook to pass by or shall I act
shall I try to do something
shall I mobilize so I decided to do the
last to learn what is this disease what
can I learn from it and how can I react
to it
what can I control myself to conquer
this disease to cope with this disease
so I got in touch with some friends in
my network I activated my network and I
met a befriended pathologist and now you
will say okay I’m gonna kill that’s easy
talk of you you have a network
I don’t well ladies I think everyone has
a network everybody has a network you
have a father you have a mother you have
grandparents you have colleagues you
have children you need to activate it
your network you need to share it
this is a network graph based on the
famous theory that everybody in the
world is just six handshakes away so
from A to B if you enter those small
stellar systems of human beings you are
just a few handshakes away from Barack
Obama by example so for instance if we
have the network drink afterwards and
you shake hands with me you are just one
handshake away from our prime minister
mr. button you are just two handshakes
away from Barack Obama yeah so just keep
this in mind that the world is much
smaller than we think it is of course
you have to go out you have to be
vulnerable you have to share your burden
and your worries and then you will be
amazed what you will get in return
so my befriended pathologist said to me
yo McGill
you need a new innovative operation
technique for colon cancer
it’s called T and E now there are some
surgeons here in the room TM e stands
for total mesorectal excision it was in
that time the best operation technique
for colon cancer it was a very neat
technique very careful operating deep
down in the belly of the patient me and
important was that all this the side
effects getting a stoma or becoming
impotent becoming incontinent or even
worse the cancer would return these side
effects were not as bad with there’s
this new operation technique as with the
standard classical operation technique
during that time so I decided okay I
want to have this operation technique a
ladies and gentlemen it took a bit of
convincing with the hospital in my
hometown
to explain to them listen guys there is
this TV technique developed in the US
and it is being pilot tested in the
academic Hospital of Leyden this is the
MCAT active academic Hospital of Leyden
I want to have this surgeon then all of
a sudden my hometown hospital said yeah
but mr. mayor we also do this sort of
technique again I consulted my network
my befriended pathologist and is that
young Hill it’s not true
they are just boasting it’s not true you
should go too late so I didn’t make a
fuzz out of it I just insisted I want to
have this operation technique in light
please
and I arranged it so I went to Leyden
academic hospital and I had an intake
with Professor case vel farts he’s pen
down and Belfort in Dutch this was
discerning of this surgeon means
well-being so can you imagine he was
meeting professor well-being in person I
thought okay yeah this is like a dream
come true you know no everything will go
fine and he was a fantastic guy we had a
fantastic intake interview and he told
me I’m I feel you know a lot about your
disease you know a lot about this TV
technique much more than the average
patient so let’s go for it
and by the way mr. maser you have a
lovely belly operating ok what is this
this is really a sort of plumber a
plumber who comes into your hometown and
looks under the kitchen sink and says
yeah those pipes and hoses yeah I can
fix it no problem
yeah so somehow this gave me a lot of
trust in this guy because honestly when
it comes to colon operations this is a
sort of plumber activity you just
connect hoses and pipes and the job is
done
I’m simplifying it but basically this is
how this surgeon responded to me until
you have a nice belly we will operate in
it so I had my operation and when I woke
up in the recovery room immediately with
my left hand I felt on my belly here and
I felt a big bulb and then I realized
our I have a stoma because this is
what my lovely professor well-being was
telling me mr. Myerson
if you wake up and you feel a big bow on
your left side you have a storm if you
don’t you don’t have his home it’s very
clear answer and I felt this bump so I
thought okay all the fuss to have this
operation and still I have a storm then
someone in the recovery room came to me
and he said mr. Mason how are you doing
yeah I’m fine I woke up but I’m afraid I
have a storm up and he just lifted a
sheet and he said you don’t have a stove
that is just the bandage of the wound
and because you get a big wound there
you know they open up your complete
belly just a bandage of the water so
just imagine ladies in amazement the
relief I had that okay that was my
operation so I remember vividly my son 7
years old who when I got back home asked
me daddy do you have this this small bag
for your Pope here because we told our
children before the operation what might
happen
and I said no son I don’t have it he was
extremely relieved as well my son was
always preparing small drinks for me
with some medicine to make my faces more
soft to have more easy defecate so why
am I telling this story to you ladies
and gentlemen and it’s on health
resilience I believe that
I sincerely believe that the choice I
made to learn to look around to try to
take control I realized that not in all
cases you can take control but in many
cases you can really helps you to become
more health resilient and there was a
famous philosopher stoic philosopher
Greek philosopher Epictetus born in
pamukkala comes pamukkala in Turkey by
the way later he moved to Greece who
says external offense we cannot control
we should undergo these calmly and
dispassionately what we can control is
our response to these events our
behavior that is what we can control and
that is where we are responsible for so
that is a wise guy he’s a smart guy yeah
I have to admit I was quite desperate of
course every now and then but basically
I sincerely believe what he says it
doesn’t help if you go whining around
yeah you have to take your life in your
arms and I would like to share another
definition of health with you which is
made by mock delt ubirr mrs. Weber is a
Dutch researcher in health and she and
her team redefined health their
definition is health is the ability to
adapt and self manage in the light of
physical emotional social challenges of
life we saw some excellent examples
today and if you can do that if a human
being can do that you are healthy and
that is a complete different definition
compared to but still the w-h-o the
World Health Organization defines as
health
which in most cases is the complete
absence of disease which of course does
not fit with our current societies where
we are aging where chronic diseases are
growing many cancers are chronic even
HIV is chronic is a chronic disease so
this definition of health ladies and
gentlemen I would like to share with you
because I believe that this is the
future of health how are we how are you
human beings able to cope with the
health setbacks we have in life so
ladies and gentlemen my challenge to you
and is what will you do in these sort of
situations will you wait like a pike for
the hook to pass by and then be careful
because this band of brothers is
insistent to fish you out of the water
or will you mobilize will you learn will
you do something thank you very much
[Applause] [Music]