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Patting the Shark

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Patting the Shark

By: Tim Baker
Narrated by: Tim Baker
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About this listen

 Tim Baker was living the dream. A best-selling and award-winning surf writer with a beautiful family, a lifetime of exotic travel and a home walking distance to quality waves.
That all changed on July 7, 2015, when he was diagnosed, out of the blue, with stage 4, metastatic prostate cancer. So began a descent into the debilitating world of aggressive cancer treatments and a fight for a survival as brutal as any big wave hold down.

Tim writes candidly and with a raw vulnerability about this perilous journey through chemotherapy, hormone therapy, radiation and surgery, and his own determined lifestyle strategies to maintain mind, body and spirit. Happily, surfing provided one of his most powerful forms of therapy, and writing about his experiences has proven deeply cathartic.

In 2020, 1.5 million men were diagnosed with prostate cancer globally and 375,000 lost their lives. In Australia, one in seven men will develop prostate cancer. Yet mainstream oncology concedes its ability to keep men with prostate cancer alive has outstripped its ability to manage the often-devastating side effects of treatment. Men with prostate cancer are living longer but with a steadily declining quality of life.

Patting The Shark documents Tim’s efforts to navigate his way through the maze of conventional and supportive therapies – meditation, diet, exercise, emotional support, counselling. Ultimately, it is a desperate plea for a more integrative approach to cancer care, treating the whole person and not just the cancer, allowing cancer patients a sense of empowerment and agency in charting their path through treatment.

This is a story about facing your mortality, staring down your fears, and working out what really matters in life, when so many elements of your identity are stripped away. It offers hope, comfort and empathy for anyone facing a cancer diagnosis and their loved ones.©2022 Tim Baker (P)2022 Penguin Random House Australia Personal Development Personal Success Inspiring
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Echoing another reviewer: I don't have cancer, I don't surf but I'm around the same age as the author and I do have a family. This book made me appreciate all of these things all the more; even my age! The author has a biting sense of humour and a wicked turn of phrase: describing his chemotherapy as a "goon (cheap Australian wine in a bag) bag of doom". His love for his life, his home and his family shine through. Imo, his cancer is a lens to allow him to look more closely at his life and this book is so much more than a cancer story. As good, imo, if not better than "When breathe becomes air" and deserves to be as widely read.

Beautiful reflection on life, wonderfully read

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I have listened to Tim’s audiobook wearing a couple of different hats but the Registered Nurse hat is the one that has learnt again through Tim’s honest and vulnerable narrative. We can become blunted and disconnected from our humanity when we work in an area of healthcare day in and day out and the jargon / diagnoses has no impact on us anymore, we just get on with it meaning we’ll enough, and we forget that peoples lives have just been shattered and are never to be the same again. It has helped me reflect on my own practice, attitudes and dialogue with clients committing to be more mindful and present as much as I possibly can as a human, not just a Nurse Consultant and what that role entails. So much learning here on so many levels. Thank You Tim.

A Tap on the Shoulder for Healthcare Providers of all levels.

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Thank you, Tim! My best friend has metastatic breast cancer and is also very into meditation, healthy eating and other holistic treatments such as the hyperbaric chamber. This book has helped me understand more of what she’s doing and going through. Believe the diagnosis not the prognosis!

Very informative

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Compelling, emotional & honest account of a personal life.

Life changing if you’re open to it..

A literary & personal Mt Everest

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Thanks mate. Gives me an insight into what I’m up for
over the next few years

Inspirational

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I don’t have cancer, I’m not a good surfer but this was an incredible book. I couldn’t stop listening to it. I laughed I had tears in my eyes. Raw and honest… I’m looking at surfing and life differently now.

Thank you

Rollercoaster of emotions.

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This audiobook is an extraordinary work that is not really possible to review, but I’ll try: The author’s profound and insightful story, along with his emotional and engaging writing style, are beyond words. The only way to truly understand its significant and lasting impact on this work is to immerse oneself in the author’s compelling and authentic story. It’s an enlightening and transformative journey of learning and feelings that simply must be experienced firsthand by any potential listener. It certainly changed me for the better.

Beyond brilliant. Life changing.

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Tim, thank you for sharing your journey thus far. It brings up memories of my own husbands cancer and perhaps some of what he went through but never told me. It’s right to write this book, there are many alternatives ways to treating cancer and so glad you are calling it out. Your story is confronting on many levels but beautiful also. Keep on surfing, meditating, keeping healthy, of living a full life and of course loving. A must read if your a man or partner diagnosed or living with prostate cancer, there are alternative ways to address treatment along with medical intervention, may there be far better treatment alternatives discovered.

A heart rendering real story on living with cancer.

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touching, moving, and raw.
highly recommend for anyone who wants to know what really happens to a man and his family after a prostate cancer diagnosis. tim's vulnerable sharing about the lows left me with a greater empathy for all people with cancer.
Thanks Tim

must read for males

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My hearted ached with the disappointments and soared with the successes. Having a minor brush (compared to this experience) with bladder cancer personally, my spouse die from breast cancer, a brother dying of prostate cancer and a father dying with prostate cancer—this book brought back many sad and fond memories. Tim’s chronicle of his experiences are extremely valuable to anyone seeking a path of reassurance on their (or their partner’s) journey with cancer.

A powerful dose of honesty

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