No Retreat, No Surrender – A Champion’s Fight Against Cancer

His athletic achievements read like a sporting fairy tale. In 1979, at the age of 15, Oscar Chalupsky made headlines at the South African Surf Lifesaving Champs, winning the Junior and Senior Ironman Titles on the same day. In 1983, he won the storied Molokai World Championships open-ocean race for the first time.

Chalupsky’s larger-than-life personality and success with his paddle – and in life – are well known and admired. He was the country’s spokesman at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, won the internationally famous Molokai to Oahu World Surfski Marathon championship a record 12 times, and continued to defeat competitors decades younger than himself well into his 40s.

But in November 2019, at the age of 56, Chalupsky’s life took an unexpected turn. While preparing for a race in Western Australia, a shaft of excruciating pain shot down his spine – unlike anything he’d experienced before, despite a lifetime of pushing his body to its limits.

I interviewed Oscar in person in Cape Town, South Africa. His approach to cancer shows what we all are capable of, if only we put our minds to it. Since his diagnosis, right until today, this true champion has never retreated, no matter how tough or painful his journey is. His positivity and can do attitude continues to amaze me and even has placed my own life and challenges in perspective.  By sharing his cancer experience publicly, and honestly everyday,  he motivates so many to never retreat, nor surrender.

Oscar Chalupsky shares his secret to life

“I had constant pain for two years, but in the last three or four months before my diagnosis, I was in serious pain. I couldn’t even sleep lying down – I had to sleep sitting up,” Chalupsky recalls. “But the strangest thing was that when I trained, the pain went away. I was doing everything I shouldn’t have been doing.”

MRI results revealed what no one expected: multiple myeloma, a bone-marrow cancer that had already reached advanced stages. His friend in America delivered the devastating news with clinical precision: “You’ve got six months to live.”

As his wife cried, Chalupsky’s response was characteristically defiant.

“I cried a little bit, then I stopped and said, ‘What I’ve achieved in my 56 years, most people achieve in three or four lifetimes. I’ve seized every day. It doesn’t worry me.’”

True to form, he insisted they attend his wife’s surprise 60th birthday party the very next day, despite being in excruciating pain. “Life carries on,” he explains. “That’s the whole secret about challenges: you’ve got to put them aside and carry on.”

Understanding Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma is a particularly challenging form of cancer because, as Chalupsky explains, “it finds different ways around all drugs”. The disease is measured through kappa light chain levels. Normal readings should be under 25. When diagnosed, Chalupsky’s was 1,470, placing him firmly in stage four.

“The doctors said, ‘This is strange. You’re off the charts; you’re in stage five or six, but you’re walking around and feeling nothing.’ I said, ‘Nothing,’ ” he recalls. “That’s the difference in mindset.”

What sets Chalupsky apart isn’t just his positive attitude; it’s his commitment to educating himself and taking an active role in his treatment. When he began chemotherapy, he made a decision that would prove crucial: he fasted for three days before each treatment session.

People think you are crazy…

“I worked it out myself – no doctor told me this. If you’ve got no food in your stomach, how do you get sick? And if you’ve got no food in your stomach, the chemo has to work better,” he explains. This approach, which he adopted in 2019-2020, has since become accepted medical advice.

His treatment journey included stem-cell harvesting, transplantation, and, eventually, when his numbers spiked again dramatically, a 21-day fast based on research by Prof. Thomas Seyfried, who advocates that all cancers are metabolic.

“People think you’re crazy when you say you’re going to fast for 21 days while fighting cancer,” Chalupsky notes. “But cancer needs food. The longest fast on record was 382 days by a Scottish man who was 100 kilos overweight.”

Lessons in Resilience

Through multiple crises – including total kidney failure that doctors said would kill him within days – Chalupsky maintained an unwavering belief in his body’s ability to recover. When told he had two to three days to live, he looked at his fitness watch, which showed him to be in excellent condition, and refused to accept the prognosis.

“My body was saying one thing, but the markers were saying another thing,” he reflects. “That’s the strangest thing: my body says you’re absolutely fine, but whatever’s growing inside you is different.”

His approach to goal-setting provides insight into his resilience.

“Always set higher goals than you think you can achieve. If you want to be at this level and you set your goal here, and then you achieve even less, you’ve achieved nothing. Rather, try to go as high as you think possible, and if you come up a little bit short, you’ve done well anyway.”

Chalupsky’s philosophy extends beyond cancer treatment to his entire approach to life. “In adversity, there’s opportunity,” he says. “People ask, ‘Isn’t having cancer terrible?’ I say no, it’s quite a good thing, because I would never have written a book if I didn’t get cancer.”

His book, No Retreat, No Surrender, co-authored with Graham Spence (author of The Elephant Whisperer), isn’t about self-pity or dwelling on illness. It’s about helping others overcome their challenges.

You can’t help but be enthusiastic and motivated by reading this book. It’s also a very humbling experience.

“Everything I do is passionate,” Chalupsky explains. “Every single day, I get somebody saying they’ve got cancer or their friend has cancer, asking me to send them a video. We learn from them, and they learn from us.”

The Balance of Life

Despite his amateur status and competing against professional athletes, Chalupsky has learned to balance sports, family, and business. “You have to have those in good balance, and the balance changes all the time. When the kids are young, you want to see them doing their sport, but you’ve always got to fit it in.”

His business ventures had mixed success, which he attributes partly to being “too loyal and too trusting”, but he maintains that he’d rather be that way than compromise his values.

“When I tell you I’m going to meet you here, I’m going to do that. If I tell you this is what’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. That’s my word.”

Today, Chalupsky has achieved partial remission, which has allowed his treatment schedule to be reduced from weekly to bi-monthly sessions. His immediate goal is characteristic in its ambition:

“I want to beat the record for the longest-surviving multiple myeloma patient, which I think is 20 years. That gives me 16 years to go.”

He’s also preparing for the World Surfski Championships in October this year, demonstrating that his competitive spirit remains undaunted.

“I was in Durban, walking along the beach, and my friend said, ‘I’m not going to believe you when you say you’re on your deathbed. Look at you; you’re walking around.’ Then three weeks later, I was on my deathbed again. But when you see me, you’ll never know that I’m fairly sick, because my head’s never going to be sick.”

When asked whether his remarkable resilience is something anyone can develop, Chalupsky is emphatic:

“I believe in everybody, no matter what creed or color. If you set your mind to something, there’s always a path. Nowadays, it’s much easier: we have the Internet, YouTube, and Instagram. You can follow people who’ll guide you.”

He acknowledges that people learn at different rates (some might develop a positive mindset in a week, others might take years), but he firmly believes the capacity exists in everyone. “Everybody has this positivity in them. They just have to find a way of learning more about it and expressing it.”

The Power of Openness. Cancer is a Disease, not a Shame!

Chalupsky’s approach to sharing his journey publicly, including graphic medical procedures on Instagram, serves multiple purposes.

“I’m teaching people what to go through and what to expect, and I’m learning, because people come back and say they’ve had similar issues, and they can help.”

His philosophy is simple

“Cancer is a disease, not a shame. Don’t hide behind perceived stigma. It’s only through discussion, acceptance and action that you discover hidden gems of advice and wisdom. Everyone wants to help, but if you don’t open up, it’s like paddling in a bubble.”

As the interview concluded, Chalupsky’s message remained consistent with everything he represents: the power of choosing positivity, even in the darkest circumstances.

“If you’re cheerful, just as they say it takes hundreds of muscles to frown and hardly any to smile, so just smile and train those muscles to smile and have fun.”

“Every one of us in our lifetime will be touched by illness, whether it’s our own or someone we love. It’s just life. We’re living organisms, and things happen. Then it’s a question of what you do about it and what you’re equipped to do.”

Chalupsky’s journey continues, marked not by retreat or surrender, but by an unwavering commitment to living fully, helping others, and proving that sometimes the greatest victories come not from avoiding life’s storms, but from learning to dance in the rain.

Oscar Chalupsky can be reached through his social-media platforms, where he continues to offer support and guidance to anyone facing adversity. No Retreat, No Surrender is available through major book retailers and on his website.

Buy Our Latest Magazine Issue

Does your appetite for longevity advice demand satiety? Read our comprehensive feature on Chalupsky’s wellness insights and tips in our Back To The Earth bookazine. You can access the complete scope on Zinio for the digital spread. Alternatively, readers living in South Africa can purchase a hard copy from shelves in select retail stores.

Follow Oscar on Social Media

Oscar records his journey daily on social media. You can follow him on Instagram on @oscarchalupsky12x 

Watch Our Interview With Oscar Chalupsky

Oscar Chalupsky joined us live on Instagram. Be inspired!

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Oscar Chalupsky (@oscarchalupsky12x)

 

 Main photo credit: https://oncologybuddies.com/2021/08/02/oscar-chalupsky-paddling-against-the-multiple-myeloma-tide/