The Gut Cancer Foundation has praised well-known psychologist and TV personality Nigel Latta for his bravery following his decision to go public with his cancer diagnosis.
In a video posted to social media last night, the 57-year-old said he “was having symptoms of what I thought was a peptic ulcer”.
“I could eat hardly anything, feel really full and getting a really uncomfortable sort of full feeling in the back of my throat,” Latta explained.
Testing revealed “a large mass which looked like a tumour at the bottom of my stomach”.
Latta said he was initially given a prognosis of six to 12 months, which he called “probably the most traumatic thing that I’ve been through”.
“I didn’t know where to go. I just stood there feeling completely and utterly paralysed.”
Gut Cancer Foundation executive officer Liam Willis said Latta’s decision to reveal his diagnosis will help some patients feel less alone.
“I think it’s really helpful for some patients to know that they’re not on their own and that there are other people that are going through it and to hear him talk about how he’s approaching it,” Willis said.
The author and TV personality, 57, said chemotherapy is working and he is “doing well”. (Source: Other)
Latta has previously spoken of the disease’s toll after his father died of bowel cancer.
“He was 66. It’s not very old and I kept thinking about those stats which are that, you know, if it’s caught now, 75% of cases are curable,” he told Seven Sharp in 2013.
While every case is different, stomach cancers have a five-year survival rate of just over 22% — and early detection remains key.
“In Nigel’s case, what alerted him to it was he felt quite full quite quickly after eating. And it’s things like that, they’re a little bit out of the normal,” Willis said.
“You know your body so something’s not quite right, particularly when you’re eating, if you are feeling nauseous or there’s unexpected weight loss.”
However, Latta said he was in a good position due to being “lucky enough” to have health insurance.
It’s given him access to the drug Keytruda and he’s responded well to treatment, giving him confidence he’ll be around for quite some time.