How this Muay Thai world champion conquered cancer

This guest UG Blog is courtesy of our friends at Evolve Vacation, which offers travelers the extraordinary opportunity of a lifetime to train under the largest collection of World Champions on the planet and to explore the hidden treasures of one of the most incredible cities in Asia.

Picture this: you’re sitting across your poker-faced doctor, holding your breath and waiting for him to update you about your results. It might only take a few seconds for him to deliver the news, but it feels like a lifetime has passed you by, in between what he just said and what he’s about to say. At this point, the only thing you can hear is the sound of your heartbeat pounding in sync with the ticking of the clock.

Just as you enter that dark place in your mind where all the worst case scenarios play out, he confirms your worst fear: you have cancer.

Now, it might feel like you’re on the outside, peering into someone else’s life. But the fact is that it is your life, and it is what’s exactly happening to you. When it finally sinks in, and reality comes crashing down on you, how would you react?

For multiple-time Muay Thai World Champion Singtongnoi Por Telakun, this was exactly what happened several months ago. I was stunned and I couldn’t believe it, he reveals. I started to cry. I was in disbelief. I thought I was going to die for sure.

I was stunned and I couldn’t believe it, revealedTelakun. I started to cry. I was in disbelief. I thought I was going to die for sure.

The cancerous tumor was about 2 centimeters (3/4 inch) long. It went through my whole nasal cavity, all the way down to the lymph nodes in my neck.

As the piece of news hit Singtongnoi, he started to worry about the future of his loved ones. Without him around to look after them, how would his family get by? At that point, he felt like he was fighting a losing battle – but despite feeling that way, he made up his mind to fight till the end. Hence, he chose to undergo treatment, which comprised of 36 sessions of radiation therapy and 7 sessions of chemotherapy.

It was tiring and torturous, he recalls. I wanted to quit, but I thought about my children’s future and the people that I love. I couldn’t quit as I had to fight for the people that I loved.

Singtongnoi has been a Muay Thai fighter ever since he was a young boy, as it was a way out of poverty. As he was the eldest of three children, he had to shoulder a great deal of responsibility, and this forced him to grow up quickly.

I would help out around the house to lighten my parents’ workload, he shared.

Apart from taking care of his younger siblings and keeping the house in order, Singtongnoi also started training and fighting competitively, so as to support his family. It comes as no surprise that he eventually made a career out of fighting and it later became his main source of income as he went on to defeat some of the biggest names in Muay Thai and became a multiple-time Muay Thai world champion.

Things took a turn for the worse when his Muay Thai career came to an end, and he had to go back to selling goat milk to make ends meet. Fortunately, Singtongnoi got invited to join the Evolve MMA instructor team in Singapore, and since then, he had been able to better support his family.

However, just when things started to look up, cancer struck.

Even the most tiring moments of my fighting career weren’t as tiring as this, he shared. My throat hurt, and I had burns from the radiation all over my neck. It was hard for me to walk and all I wanted to do was throw up.

Lucky for Sintongnoi, Evolve was there to cover the cost of his treatment. Thankfully, Singtongnoi is a fighter not just in the ring, but out of it as well. Thus, he was able to stay strong and eventually overcome his biggest obstacle: cancer.

The most important thing is to have a fighting spirit, he says.