‘Mum, am I going to die?’: Chef Josh Niland recalls receiving cancer diagnosis at age eight
Acclaimed Australian chef Josh Niland has reflected on the moment he learned he had cancer two days after his eighth birthday.
The founder of Sydney’s Saint Peter restaurant was diagnosed with stage 2 Wilms’ tumour, a form of kidney cancer, after his mother noticed a “softball-sized mass” emerge from under his ribcage as he lifted his arms.
Josh Niland has reflected on his childhood cancer battle in a new interview, Getty
“I just turned and looked at Mum and said, ‘Mum, am I going to die?’” he said of the aftermath of the news on The Imperfects podcast.
“I think that was the first time I ever saw Mum cry.”
Niland was already booked in to see a doctor the morning his lump appeared. He had been “a little off the boil” for the year leading to that moment, enduring glandular fever, colds and flus.
The day after his birthday party at McDonald’s in Maitland, NSW, he was unwell and didn’t attend school. While his family put it down to a “sugar hangover”, his mother booked a GP appointment for 8am the next day.
That morning, when he lifted his pyjama shirt over his head, the physical lump “dropped down out of” his ribcage, with Niland feeling it as his mother saw it.
After a day’s worth of “pokes and prods” – blood tests, MRIs, CAT scans and ultrasounds – the doctor told Niland’s mother, “Your son’s got a Wilms’ tumour. You’ve got to get him to the hospital as quickly as you can.”
The chef recalled his mother reacting to the news and taking action stoically, but said she began crying as they were driving home when Niland asked if he was going to die.
“At eight, the only context you have of cancer is, ‘I’m old, and I’m going to die’ ... the severity of the situation became very real,” he told podcast hosts Josh and Hugh van Cuylenburg and Ryan Shelton.
The founder of iconic restaurant Saint Peter was diagnosed with Wilms’ tumour two days after his eighth birthday. YouTube/The Imperfects
Hours later, Niland was in hospital in Newcastle, then taken to Sydney, where he had surgery at the new children’s hospital in Randwick.
“[The surgeon] had a Sharpie and he was drawing all over my stomach, ‘We’re going to do this and check out this’,” he said.
There was a tumour the size of a 30 watt lightglobe on his vena cava, a major vein, and one on his right kidney “the size of a 12-month-old baby head”. Both were removed, along with his kidney.
Niland said now, at 37, he feels immense gratitude to his parents for their “unbelievable” support throughout the ordeal.
“My mum [was] sitting in the hospital room by herself, on a chair, just waiting and hoping,” he recalled.
“Then my dad, who’s running his own business at the back of our house ... and getting my sister to and from school and making sure the normality of a 10-year-old girl’s life continues.
“It’s only something now I can look at and go, ‘Unbelievable people’.”
Niland is now one of Australia’s most acclaimed chefs, world-famous for his creative, groundbreaking approach to cooking. He opened his now-iconic seafood restaurant Saint Peter in 2016.
