Novel a beacon on cancer journey

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Author: Stuart Whitaker
• Publication title: Te Puke Times

Written in acts rather than parts and scenes rather than chapters, Ron has just published his first novel, but not his first book Coromandel Dreamin’

Coromandel Dreamin’ has taken four years to write, roughly coinciding with an up-and-down battle against metastatic melanoma for its 66-year-old author, a retired corporate communication specialist.

He was first diagnosed with melanoma in 2009.

“I’d surfed all my teenage and younger years. Surfing was my sport year-round and through that childhood there was not a lot of attention to skin protection against cancer.

“I would surf two to three hours at a time getting a pretty hefty dose of UV, so those years, before I turned 20, largely determined my future now really.

In 2009 he had surgery to remove the melanoma from his back.

“I had 10 years’ remission after that, then in 2019 it came back on my collar bone and armpit. I had surgery to remove that, then went onto a drug trial, which worked for three years.”

But the cancer returned in 2022, was declared inoperable and has proven to be much more difficult to beat this time.

“The drugs I’ve been on up until now apart from the first one, didn’t really do much. They have slowed it a bit, but it still hung in there and grew.”

His latest scan has indicated some shrinkage of the internal tumours.

“That’s heartening, but I’m under no illusion, it’s one of those games, you keep plugging away and see how the future goes.”

The latest diagnosis coincided with a job change. 0With a free week before starting his new job, Ron went to stay in a Coromandel bach intending to finish the novel.

Before he left he had had a routine scan, part of the ongoing monitoring after his previous bout of treatment.

“That came back and said [the cancer] had come back. My whole world shifted.”

He took the new job but, eventually, the fatigue associated with the treatment meant he could no longer work full-time.

Ron had previously written a book about internal communications — on the back of which he ran workshops — two poetry books and a book on meditation.

But Coromandel Dreamin’ is his first completed novel.

“A novel is the holy grail. It’s like being a runner and aspiring to a marathon — or an ultramarathon.”

The book leapfrogged two other ideas he was working on.

“I had two others on the go, but out of the blue, this one cropped up.”

While he had already begun the book before the latest diagnosis, the goal of completing it, he...