Stranded Aussie sailor Tim Shaddock rescued from Pacific Ocean had brush with bowel cancer

An Australian sailor who was stranded at sea with his dog for two months enacted key strategies to survive – as it has been revealed, he had faced death a decade earlier.

Tim Shaddock, along with his dog Bella, was rescued just off the coast of Mexico after a helicopter accompanying a tuna trawler spotted their battered catamaran.

The doctor aboard the trawler compared Mr Shaddock’s dire situation to Tom Hank’s film Castaway – the portrayal of the star’s thin and bearded character bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Australian sailor.

The Sydney man had set sail in April from La Pez, along Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, for a solo journey of more than 4,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to French Polynesia before a storm destroyed the electronics on his boat.

Both he and his dog survived on raw fish and rainwater as their only food, described as a mix of “skill and luck” by Mike Tipton, a professor of human and applied physiology at the University of Portsmouth.

Mr Shaddock revealed that he had faced death in the past, claiming in a 2013 blog post that he went on an ‘entirely raw’ diet to beat stage four colon cancer.

Mr Shaddock was able to survive on strict rationing of food and water as there was no guarantee when they would catch a fish or rain.

Professor Tipton said that for the Sydney man to survive, “several things have to come together… You also need some skill.”

“It’s a combination of luck and skill and also knowing that, like Tim, you know that you need to protect yourself in the heat of the day (from the sun), because the last thing you want when you’re in danger of being dehydrated is sweating,” he said 9 News.

The professor also said having company on board with Bella “would have helped him immensely” to avoid his isolation.

Bella was seen wagging her tail at the camera crew filming the sailor’s catamaran littered with buckets and equipment.

“Just got fishing gear, survival gear,” Mr. Shaddock was heard to say to a man from the ship.

The sailor said he had gone through a very difficult ordeal before being rescued by the trawler and had not eaten enough for ‘a long time’.

“I need some rest and some good food, for I have been alone at sea for a long time,” said the sailor.

“I have very good medicines and I am very well taken care of.”

An image of Mr. Shaddock after his rescue showed him with a wide grin with a blood pressure monitor attached to his arm.

Being trapped on a boat isn’t Mr. Shaddock’s only manslaughter, however, with the sailor revealing in an interview with The Raw Food Kitchen that he had survived stage four colon cancer.

In the 2013 interview, he claimed he had switched to a “completely raw” diet and rejected Western medicine after being diagnosed, having had the disease since the 1990s.

“The concept of going ‘completely raw’, as I’ve heard, was being thrown around… only became a reality for me when I was at the critical stage of my cancer diagnosis,” said Mr Shaddock.

He claims the diet shocked doctors as he was able to outlive his life expectancy and travel the world.

“I had to change doctors regularly because of course they were shocked by the terrible results,” he said

“And in their capacity as professionals, (the doctors) were very compelling in their manner that I immediately follow their advice.”

Mr. Shaddock stands by his claims that holistic medicine has helped him cure his cancer, despite there being no scientific evidence to back it up.

A healthy diet can reduce the risk of developing cancer, but it cannot cure the disease.