The importance of being silly
Jos van der Linde has come to appreciate what really matters after a cancer diagnosis brought him face to face with his own mortality.
Hypnotist, Aiden Powers, is set to astound a local audience in two weeks to raise funds for the treatment of leukaemia patient, Jos van der Linde.
After watching a video of a previous show, Jos admits that he is afraid he will embarrass himself if he is hypnotised, but feels that this opportunity to have fun and be silly ties in perfectly with what he has come to realise really matters in life.
Asked how a cancer diagnosis has changed his outlook on life, Jos responds, “Anyone can greet someone and ask how he or she is. Being genuinely interested in the answer, however, is another matter.”
The difference is something that Jos says he has come to realise recently.
“When I greeted people and asked them how they were, I never even listened for their response. Now, I ask because I genuinely want to know. I want to make use of every opportunity to support my friends and family like they supported me.”
Jos learned that he had leukaemia four months ago when he consulted with a doctor about severe abdominal pain he was experiencing.
“I was tired all the time, often felt out of breath and frequently woke up with bruises, but I thought I just bruised easily. Cancer never even crossed my mind,” he admitted. “When the doctor told me I had leukaemia, I thought I was going to die. The doctor tried to explain that cancer was not a death sentence but I didn’t hear a word he said after leukaemia. I just shut down. The next thing I remember was calling my mom.”
What followed was a nightmare of countless needles, radiation burns, nausea, vomiting, hair loss and weight loss. Jos began juicing his food so that he could get some nutrition into his body.
“Imagine feeling so hungry, you want to eat anything within sight but you can’t keep anything down. I lost 20kg in six weeks. I once became so ill after treatment that I vomited in a pot plant in the oncology department. That was the most embarrassing moment of my life. Emotionally, I was finished and didn’t feel like I wanted to go for any more treatments.”
He continued, “After radiation made my cancer worse, I switched to a treatment of hydrogen peroxide drips and a raw food diet. Now, I feel much better and I have a lot more energy.”
Despite the pain, depression and desperation that Jos has had to endure at 26-years-old, he maintains that there is still light at the end of the tunnel.
“I am determined more than ever not to waste my life. I will not waste time on things that don’t really matter to me and this experience has given me the ability to walk away from anyone who is not enriching my life,” says Jos.
“My advice to anyone who may be going through what I just went through is: allow yourself to feel. Don’t try to hide and bottle up your feelings. At the same time, don’t give up and don’t let this beat you, try to stay within your normal routine as much as possible, and don’t fall into the ‘poor me’ mind-set.”
Asked what he hopes people will remember about him when he passes on someday, Jos jovially answers, “My awesome hair!”
To that he adds, “… and I hope my loved ones remember how much they mean to me.”Aiden Powers will perform on October 19 at the Drakensberg School Hall. Contact Angela Ferreira on 084 444 9229.
