Sidharth Ghosh, popularly known as Flying Sidharth, is a cancer coach, transformer, marathon runner, biker, and traveler by passion. He has been a runner since 2008 and has participated in several marathons post his Cancer Treatment. He has been featured in Star Sports, "Believe Me Story," "YourStory," and several other media houses. He wrote the book "Cancer as I Know It" in 2019 after completing five years of his cancer journey; the Indian Author's Association launched the book on Amazon in 13 countries.

About the Healing Circle

Healing Circles at Love Heals Cancer and ZenOnco.io are sacred and open-minded spaces for cancer patients to share their emotions and experiences. Healing Circles are meant to bring a sense of calm and comfort amongst participants so that they can feel much more accepted. The primary objective of these Healing Circles is to help care providers, survivors, and cancer patients become mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially stronger after, before, or while undergoing Cancer Treatment. Our sacred space aimed to bring about hopeful, thoughtful, and convenient processes of helping participants mitigate several healing obstacles. Our professional experts are dedicated to offering undivided guidance to cancer patients for safe and fast healing of the body, mind, spirit, and emotions.

Sidharth Ghosh shares his journey

I was detected with kidney cancer in 2014. Ironically, within a month after my kidney cancer diagnosis, I ran a marathon in Mumbai. I played a corporate cricket tournament a day before detection. The doctors said there was a cancerous growth in my right kidney. Later, I took various opinions, but I got the same answer from everyone that I had to undergo Surgery. I underwent surgery, and after that, I still remember the compliments I got from my surgeon four days after my Surgery. I was 34 years old at that time, and I was an athlete and runner, so the first thing the doctors said was, "Sidharth, when we opened you up, there was no fat, and we actually found a 22-year-old boy inside, so it was not difficult for us to operate you."

I was in bed for three months, and the biggest challenge for me was that there was no support group; people were unwilling to talk about it and share that they had cancer because it was still taken as a stigma. That was when I started writing my blog, and within six months, people from around 25 countries joined the blog, but the saddest part was that people from India were the least. Taking inspiration from Yuvraj Singh and Lance Armstrong, I thought if they can do it, I can too. There were many difficulties, but there were many people who played different roles in my life. My mom was my biggest pillar of support, and my dog became my much-needed company during my kidney cancer journey.

I believe that Bollywood movies also have a significant impact on us. Munna Bhai MBBS and Jab We Met has so much to teach us, and I personally got so many insights to look into myself and get motivated through them. I started to work on myself.

Our friends and family members play a very important role. I had my best friends who were always with me. When I was discharged from the hospital, two of my friends who donated blood to me regularly skipped their office to be with me and played an integral role in my life.

I sent my reports to Mayo Clinic in Florida; they are the ones who are researching cancer for the last 24 years. They told me a few things which were quite surprising for me. One was the type of cancer that I had; it is very rare in even Asians; forget about India. Secondly, it happens at the age of 60 years or so, and I was too young for that type of cancer. Thirdly, there is a gene called NPTX2, and when it gets super aggressive, it triggers cancer in the kidney. They also said that the growth would have taken at least five years to grow that much, which meant that for the last five years, I was running a marathon, playing cricket, and doing all these while I had this cancer growing inside me, without having any clue about it.

After three-four months, when I started to walk, the first thing that came to mind was to go back to running and run a marathon, but things were not working that way. I started preparing to run, and eventually, after five and a half months, I decided to jog and prepare myself to complete the half marathon. I finished the half marathon, and later, I decided to run a full marathon. When I completed my full marathon, my friends said, "Sidharth, Milkha Singh was called Flying Singh, and from today we will call you Flying Sid," and this is how the Flying Sidharth came into the picture. I started my blog, and now all my blogs are named Flying Sidharth.

I still remember after 333 days, it was at the end of January that the corporate cricket tournament came up again, and my team welcomed me with open arms. I went ahead, and we played a tournament and even won it. It was the best memories that I have.

After my treatment, I started to work with different NGOs. I came across a lot of people who were mentally disturbed due to Hair loss and other changes in their bodies due to Cancer Treatment. I always tell them that life is way beyond this. Stay away from negative people and people who judge you because of your looks; they are not worthy of being in your life.

I work as a cancer coach now, a lot of people reach out to me through my blog, and I interact with lots of cancer survivors and tell them that it's essential to have a positive mindset. Most importantly, I like to talk about things that people don't usually talk about. They always talk about the patient but never about the caregiver. Nobody acknowledges their pain, maybe because the main focus is on the patient, but it's not just the patient who fights cancer; it's the entire family and your close friends who battle with it, so caregivers should not be neglected.

In the last 5-6 years, I have realized that most of us are not fighting cancer, but we are actually fighting the fear of cancer. I never had any other option than to fight cancer.

Be Mentally Prepared for Anything

The first thing you need to do is accept that it has happened. If you stay in a denial mode, then things will not go positively for you. My mom used to say that "You hope for the best but be prepared for the worst," so always stay positive but at the same time be watchful. Have information from the right sources.

If you have the right people around you, then they will always pull you up from everything. Engage yourself in the things you like. Don't allow negative people to enter your life.

We should stop going to the internet. You need to disconnect with people who provide you wrong information and connect only with the right people. I believe in keeping things simple.