The best medicine

Posted on 5 February 2014

Xylon van Eyck, TV presenter and cancer survivor, explains why a positive attitude can be one of the best medicines in your recovery cabinet.

In 2012 and 2013, sports commentator Xylon van Eyck had to undergo 16 sessions of chemotherapy to treat non-Hodgkins lymphoma – a cancer that attacks the immune system. Those three-hour sessions were the biggest challenge of his life, but he had three secret weapons that helped him pull through: his faith, his healthy lifestyle and his positive attitude.

‘I’m a very positive person,’ he says, ‘and I learnt early on in life that you should never stand still. Life is all about progressing. Sitting in the chemotherapy room, getting the treatment… it’s horrible and there are days when you don’t want to get out of bed. But life doesn’t stop there. You have your ups and downs, but that’s just the nature of living.
The body follows the mind,’ he adds, ‘so you’ve got to stay positive. And that’s really what I tried to do, just keep on moving forward.’

His oncologist, Dr Shun Devan Moodley of the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, agrees: ‘A positive attitude is extremely important in managing this process. It helps getting you through difficult moments. A good attitude is vital in managing the terrible side effects and keeping you focused to get to the end of this chemotherapy ordeal.’

‘A healthy lifestyle is also very helpful in this regard,’ Dr Moodley adds. ‘A healthy body helps you cope with the rigors of treatment. Eating healthily, not smoking, modest alcohol intake and living cleanly could help prevent around 80% of the malignancies I see in my profession.’

But Xylon isn’t bitter about his experience. ‘People can never tell you it happened because of X, Y or Z, or it happened because you ate blue food, or because you wore shorts today. There’s no reason. It could happen to anybody,’ he says.

Click here to read Xylon’s full story in Mediclinic Family magazine.

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The information provided in this article was correct at the time of publishing. At Mediclinic we endeavour to provide our patients and readers with accurate and reliable information, which is why we continually review and update our content. However, due to the dynamic nature of clinical information and medicine, some information may from time to time become outdated prior to revision.