If you’re wondering what the reason why I go after a tonne of travel experiences via this silly travel blog, well this is it!
Hi, my name is Anthony Bianco and I live in Australia.
I am a long term primary mediastinal nonseminomatous germ cell tumour survivor. You’ve obviously come across this page because you’re trying to find someone who has survived this extremely rare cancer, and even though we have the internet at our disposal these days, it’s still hard to find someone.
Well, you’ve found that person. That’s me.
If you’ve been diagnosed with this rare cancer, please contact me.
I’m sure you feel like you’re the only person in the world who is going through this, but believe me, you’re not.
I was diagnosed in December 1994. And I’m still around annoying everyone.. 🙂
My first Primary Mediastinal Nonseminomatous Germ Cell Tumour X-Ray
Yes, it’s a scary one. At the time of this x-ray, I was having trouble breathing and the tumour had pushed out the veins in my chest plus I felt very lethargic.
This is what it looked like at time: 11 centimetres across by 15 centimetres down.
This is what a normal chest x-ray should look like. This is me a number of years after treatment. This is a normal scan.
I was only 21 at the time. I had just finished university in Townsville in Far North Queensland, but then went straight into the chemo ward for 3 months of high dose chemotherapy from hell.
You’ll become very familiar with three chemotherapy drugs that will be your best friend and worst enemy at the same time – bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatain. Otherwise known as the BEP protocol. You’ll hate every minute of chemotherapy, but there’s no other option.
I was ‘lucky’ enough not to endure the holy trinity of cancer treatments. That is, for some inexplicable reason, I did not require follow up treatment such as surgery and/or radiation therapy.
I was very, very, lucky to survive this. My doctor didn’t think I was going to make it (at best, a 20:80 chance of surviving – please note, the 5 year survival rate is around 40-50% ).
You can read more about my story in detail here as well as this interview: Anthony Bianco: I Survived Cancer and Here Is How I Did It. And you’ll see that I’ve really tried my very best to pack as much as I can into my life since.
I’m not expecting a flood of emails because of how rare this type of cancer is (my doctor told me this is a 1 in 10 million chance), but I’m happy to help out wherever I can. I’ll tell you everything that I know.
If you’re a support person for someone who has this – that is, a family member or a friend, here is my best tip for you – ‘you don’t need to understand what they’re going through, you just need to be there‘.
I had incredible support from my family and friends and they went through hell, just like I did. I call these people ‘my guardian angels’ as I’m sure they’re the reason I’m still around more than 2 decades later. And what you might think is small and trivial means everything to the person on the receiving end. A simple text, phone call, or taking someone out for the day means everything and sends a powerful message that ‘these people want me to stick around’.
Just letting you know – there is always life after a bad experience, and I’m living proof that people do live for a long time after something almost kills them.
Talk soon! And don’t hesitate to contact me.