There aren’t many people who can find the bright side of being diagnosed with cancer.
But winemaker Nick Dugmore has found it.
“Cancer’s been phenomenal for me, because I’ve never lived so f—ing purely and happy, and just in love with life in all my life,” Dugmore told news.com.au.
It’s likely the only compliment the disease has ever had, but for the 41-year-old father from Adelaide, his stage four bowel cancer diagnosis hasn’t shackled him in chains.
His journey to diagnosis began after he woke up with a rash that he describes as being “just a little bit itchy” on his forearms following a night of swagging under the stars on a private property outside his Adelaide vineyard in 2022.
However, as days passed, the symptoms grew more intense.
“I went to the hospital because it was just getting way too out of control… I didn’t sleep for the next six nights,” he revealed.
The only respite he had from the discomfort was scalding hot showers that felt “abnormal” in their bliss.
At its worst, he was showering up to eight times a day.
“I was having the only relief was these hot showers, and they were just out of control, how good they felt,” he said.
When the rash failed to subside in the days following, he went to the hospital, where medical professionals weren’t certain of the cause.
“They put me in a glass box thing because they thought I might have had monkeypox,” he recalled.
It was a scenario that led to a laugh with his mates; however, 14 months later, he was handed a life-altering diagnosis.
He was told he had cancer after a tumor was discovered within his bowel. Hearing the doctor reveal the news, he was terrified.
“Cancer is completely out of the blue, and you’re just s— scared. You want it out as soon as possible,” he said.
But he refused to let the diagnosis define him. He refused to wallow.
“It took me a while to acknowledge the fact that those cells are my cells and my body has given me cancer for a reason,” he said.
It caused him to completely reevaluate his lifestyle and confront the environment that surrounded him.
“Cancer was asking me to change. It’s been some big discussions that I’ve had to have with my with myself and big discussions that I’ve had to have with my own ego,” he explained.
He’s experimented with self-reflection and said he believes there’s power in focusing on the “healing journey” rather than racing to fight and defeat cancer. That letting go of fear is vital.
“The first thing you’ve got to do is come out of fear. If you don’t come out of fear and fear of death, then it’s going to be a lot harder for your body to heal,” he said.
Bowel cancer is Australia’s second deadliest cancer, with approximately 15,000–16,000 new cases and over 5300 deaths annually, Cancer Australia states.
While it remains most common in people over 50, rates are rising rapidly among young Australians.
He refers to his cancer as “death by 999 cuts” because of a research gateway it opened for him.
Cancer Council Australia says bowel cancer is often caused by a combination of genetic factors, older age (usually over 50), and lifestyle risks such as low-fiber diets, high consumption of red/processed meats, obesity, smoking, and alcohol consumption.
But Dugmore believes his diagnosis is linked to exposure to the farming chemical glyphosate.
The chemical is commonly used to kill unwanted weeds while sparing crops that have been engineered to survive it.
Currently, medical experts and Australian regulators maintain that glyphosate isn’t a carcinogen.
But when he thinks back to that night in 2022, when he rolled out his swag under the stars on a property in Kangaroo Island after a day spent pruning his vineyard, he distinctly recalls that glyphosate had been sprayed on the nearby canola crops.
“I was stepping in it and putting my hands in it when I was getting into my swag,” he claimed.
He also believes the timeline of how old his tumor was when it was discovered could be another indicator of what caused it to occur.
“My bowel surgeon said to me, ‘I believe that your primary tumor is 14 to 16 months in size’ and that’s when I traced it back to the rash,” Dugmore said.
In February, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) reaffirmed its confidence in the regulatory system that approves the use of the chemical.
It’s been a topic that continues to be the subject of ongoing, intense scientific and legal debate, with different organizations divided.
While he acknowledges the link is not definitive, his diagnosis has left him dedicated to researching glyphosate and its potential impact on human health.
He says speaking out about his bowel cancer has also led to him connecting with others, too, adding that his cancer has given him a “huge amount of purpose”.
