Tim Shaddock: before and after images show change to Aussie sailor’s appearance after Mexico rescue

Remarkable photos show the transformation of an Australian castaway who was found at sea with his dog after living on rainwater and tuna for three months.

Tim Shaddock and his dog Bella were rescued off the coast of Mexico after a helicopter accompanying a tuna trawler spotted their catamaran last week.

Although he was found healthy and in good spirits, footage from Mr Shaddock’s rescue showed the Sydney man looking thin and disheveled after living on a strict minimum diet for months.

Now extraordinary footage has emerged of Mr. Shaddock leading a very different life before disappearing off the coast of Mexico.

The most recent photo shows Mr. Shaddock sporting a neatly groomed beard that appears to be the epitome of health – his appearance was a world away from the spiky beard and dirty clothes he was wearing when he was rescued.

His unkempt appearance after being rescued by a tuna trawler immediately drew comparisons to Chuck Nolan, played by Tom Hanks, in the movie Castaway.

Another photograph of the sailor as a much younger man shows a heavyset Mr. Shaddock wearing an ironed shirt, his hair neatly trimmed and his face clean-shaven.

Another photo showed a slightly older Mr. Shaddock beaming with a wide grin on his face and appearing slimmer after going on a raw food diet.

Mr. Shaddock and his dog Bella had set out three months ago from La Pez, along Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, on a solo journey of more than 4,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to French Polynesia.

However, just two weeks into his trip, a storm destroyed the electronics on his boat, leaving the pair with no communication with the outside world or a way to navigate the open ocean.

The sailor was lucky enough to bring fishing and survival gear for the journey, which gave both him and Bella plenty of chances to survive the ordeal.

Mike Tipton, professor of human and applied physiology at the University of Portsmouth, explained 9News Mr. Shaddock’s survival was a mix of “luck and skill.”

He said while the sailor had to be lucky with rainfall to replenish water supplies, his knowledge of creating shade during the day to avoid heat stroke and strict rationing rules increased his chances of survival.

The professor 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.

However, earlier images of Mr. Shaddock from his time working as an IT expert in the 1990s show a drastic change in his appearance (pictured, Mr. Shaddock)

He weighed a whopping 140kg before being diagnosed with stage four terminal colon cancer and switched to an ‘entirely raw’ diet as a last ditch effort to survive the diagnosis.

Mr. Shaddock’s unkempt appearance at his rescue immediately drew comparisons to Chuck Nolan, played by Tom Hanks, in the 2000 movie “Castaway.”

However, it’s not the only body transformation Mr Shaddock has undergone, having lost a large amount of weight following a stage four colon cancer diagnosis.

The Sydney man was an IT expert in the 1990s and weighed a whopping 120kg before receiving his diagnosis, a far cry from his physique today.

He claims the raw diet helped curb the growth of cancer cells and saved his life, having not eaten a cooked meal for seven years until an interview with The Raw Food Kitchen in 2013.

“My stomach had cancer many years ago and I’m cured of it now,” he told the fishermen on the tuna trawler after they were brought on board.

Mr. Shaddock claims the diet helped survive and “cure” his shortened life expectancy from the cancer and weight loss (pictured, Mr. Shaddock in 2013)

He would then leave his job as an IT expert to open Live Raw in 2010, a company that promoted and sold products related to a raw diet that could kill cancer cells.

The former IT expert had even started a company in 2010, Live Raw, which promoted and marketed the raw diet lifestyle before demise in 2020.

Mr Shaddock gained some notoriety for his claims that a raw diet cured his cancer, being interviewed by Seven’s Sunrise and by Nine.

However, the former Live Raw website claims that an unknown doctor had forced Nine to pull the interview from airing, saying, “If this interview airs, people will be killed… (if they watch it and take the advice of following Tim)’,

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.