Cancer Survivor, 22, Writes Book to Thank Those Who Saved Him

When Angus Cunningham noticed lumps in his neck at age nine, his first thought was innocent: they made him more like his older brother Henry, who had a benign tumor. But those golf ball-sized lumps were Hodgkin's Lymphoma, launching a battle that would test him twice before his 12th birthday.

The Sydney boy's first round of chemotherapy lasted three months. His schoolmates shaved their heads in solidarity, and by year's end, the cancer was gone.

Fourteen months later, during year six when Angus had just been elected school captain, the lumps returned. This time, cancer had spread throughout his abdomen, and doctors gave him a 50-50 chance of survival.

"I can't even imagine being told someone you love, your child, has a 50-50 chance," Angus, now 22, told reporters this week. "It was life or death."

The second battle was brutal. When standard chemotherapy failed, doctors moved to radiotherapy, then a stem cell transplant that left Angus in isolation and so sick he barely recognized himself in the mirror. "I looked like a skeleton," he recalled.

After months in and out of hospital, a PET scan finally showed no cancer. But Angus still faced a 50-50 recurrence risk, and the preventative drug his parents researched wasn't approved under Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

The cost? $187,000. His parents prepared to pay out of pocket until charity Rare Cancers Australia stepped in to fundraise every dollar needed.

Why This Inspires

Angus didn't just survive. He thrived, channeling his experience into a book that thanks everyone who supported him through those dark years. Writing became his way of processing the mental health toll the disease took and honoring the community that rallied around his family.

The book celebrates the schoolmates who shaved their heads, the charity that fundraised six figures, and the medical team led by oncologist Toby Trahair who guided him through impossible choices. It's proof that when communities show up for families facing childhood cancer, the impact echoes for years.

Today, Angus is cancer-free and turning his story into hope for other families walking similar paths.