SAILING THE WORLD WITH ONLY 6 MONTHS TO LIVE

Facing mortality has a way of clearing away everything that isn't important. So what do you do if you only have six months to live? You've never been a smoker and you've been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and the only medicine giving you the strength to get out of bed isn't covered by your insurance. It sounds like an impossible situation but this pandemic has placed us smack dab in the middle of one man's incredible journey. Meet our new friend Mark Barman. Born in Cape Town 1958, fifth son of Kenny and Leonie. We grew up on the beach in Camps Bay, Buckhoven. The most amazing upbringing in the 70s and 80s in Cape Town. Nobody there and the beaches were just spectacular and the crayfish were beautiful. Lobster. We moved aboard Millennium a couple of weeks ago. It's a long story but the short version is we're en route to our floating home in Tonga but the borders closed while we were in the air. It was going so well. It was going too well. That's the problem. Now we're stuck in Fiji, homesick and have been living out of a suitcase for the past five months. We're starting to go a little stir crazy and that's when we met Mark walking around the port one day. You see he's stuck here too. Happily stuck to a degree. Yeah to a degree right. I miss my wife tremendously. She was incredible on the boat. She's back in South Africa teaching which she loves so she went back and then Corona came along and I'm stuck here. Surfing and having a really good time and trying to pretend that you're not having a good time every time you talk to your wife. Yes, not supposed to say it like that but yes. So here we are on a 67 ton expedition ship with the most inspirational person we've ever known. Where does Millennium come into your story? Like how did this boat come about? How did you end up here? I went to Indonesia with some friends in 2002 after a 10 year layoff from surfing. Obviously working and doing all the things responsible people are supposed to do. I went on a charter to the Mentua Islands and I said that is what I want to do when I retire and in 2002 I started planning to have my own boat and travel the world surfing along the equator warm water and that's how it started. So you wanted to run a surf charter like the one you visited in Indonesia? More so for my own selfish surfing needs than a surf charter. Okay. After 32 years of work I was wanting to do surfing for myself and then hand the boat over to my son to do charter of some sort. That's how I ended up here. My son was with me and he met somebody in Caribbean and he's still there and we carried on to Fiji and here we are surfing. Mark has surfing in his DNA. His family is regarded as surfing royalty in South Africa. His uncle and two of his brothers were pro surfers and his oldest brother Donald was a prodigy who became pro at the age of 14. From day one all I wanted to do was surf. Got into trouble at school on a regular basis because I didn't want to do any other sport. Surfing the best waves in the world has been a lifelong dream for Mark and he's become a local legend here in Fiji. That legend on the surf, on the lineup. Yeah legend in the lineup, legend in life. This guy does three surfs and he powers through so Mark knows what he's doing. Yeah biggest legend ever, best stories ever. So what was the draw to Millennium? Like why this boat? Well I saw my neighbor build it, Claude Matzner in Port Elizabeth and we were very good friends in the fishing industry. Sadly he passed away before he could utilize the boat and then I tried to purchase the boat from the family at the time and didn't quite have enough money and a friend of mine purchased it, John Davies, and he had it for 10 or 12 years and he used to do trips to Madagascar and then he said no he's gonna sell it and I purchased it from him and completely refitted it. It was a gaff rig schooner with ropes and mess and just chaos and I took a big angle grinder and cut everything off. Much to my wife Liesel's horror, I did a big job on it. You said Liesel thought you were crazy, your mom thought you were crazy. My two brothers thought I was crazy and everybody else thought I was crazy because they could not visualize what I was trying to do and Frank and I knew what we were trying to do and we had the team to put it together. It may have been a little crazy but Millennium has gotten him this far and she's seen a lot of adventures. But there was a time during the refit process where Mark thought the dream was over. Yeah in 2016 they told me I had six months to live maximum that would be my my uh I would be done with lung cancer and I never smoked it was just something hereditary and that was triggered and I got knocked out with the cancer and lay in bed couldn't move couldn't walk couldn't even get to the bathroom. They immediately wanted to put me on this chemical and I said there's no way I'm doing that under no circumstances whatsoever. Yeah for a while I thought that was me done for and got some incredible treatment from AstraZeneca Not sponsored by any stretch of the imagination. They must give me some more. Yeah. Six weeks after taking started taking those tablets I got up and ambled around and two weeks after that I walked to the beach. Millennium was in the harbor being repaired by friends of mine that took over. Brendan my brother Donald and they carried on with the project and when I could walk again I went down and saw how much work they had done and I said I'm not giving up. You're gonna go anyway. We're going and I managed to get my strength back and started surfing again and yeah it was quite a quite a road but yeah I refused to give up on my dream. Yeah this is uh my oldest brother my late brother Donald he also died of lung cancer just after I got better he was diagnosed. Oh really? I was just getting back on my feet and sadly he got diagnosed and died within the year. He did an incredible amount of work on the boat um so yeah thank you Donald. Yeah. And uh there's Lisa and myself on the day we gave everybody a party there was about 80 or 90 people on the boat just before we left we took off from Port Elizabeth and we had a little bit of a mishap within the first couple of miles went back sorted that out and then we set sail again for Cape Town so our shakedown cruise was around Cape Agulhas that was a pretty good shakedown cruise. Yeah I just can't imagine if you wouldn't have been doing all of it. I spent years collecting my surfboards I would have been devastated if I couldn't use them all. It's a huge risk but it was also I mean I can't imagine that you've ever regretted it. No no I never regretted it. No right I mean can you imagine if you would have just stayed home and all the stories you told about how you were just you were on these treatments and you were just took the life right out of you you know and you just couldn't even move and now you're out here and you're going and you're blowing and I just wow I mean you move yeah you move better than we do on our boat it makes me feel a little bit like a wimp someday It's been an incredible journey I just wish my wife was here but yeah we will get to South Africa eventually. You have this boat and you have this dream so why are you selling the boat? No you can't ask me that. I can't ask you that? No. Okay. I don't like people to know. Okay. I don't want people to feel sorry for me. So here comes the reality. Mark's story doesn't end here and his battle with cancer is only getting more complex. So this is your chemo pill? That's my chemo pill. Tried some other drug and that didn't work for two months or three months then went three months without anything and went completely downhill and then. And when you say downhill like what do you mean by that? Like did you just struggle to breathe or? I couldn't even get out of bed. Couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't lift my head off the pillow. I couldn't go to the bathroom. I couldn't walk. I just crawled everywhere. So how many of these are you supposed to take? I'm supposed to take one every day. But how many are you actually taking? One every three days. I took one every day for the first couple of years and then cut it down to one every two days and I still felt okay. So about three months ago I cut it down again to one every three days. Now you might be wondering why is Mark cutting down on the medication that's keeping him going? Well his supply is running out and the cost to order more is just way too much. His last supply for 30 days cost him 92,000 rand. There's my lifeblood. 10 times 3 is 30 and 8 times 3 is 24. Then we'll see what happens. But it's given me an opportunity to do what I've done and get all the way here and meet everybody. The wins. Let's not let that be the last thing that you get to do in this life. You deserve so much more. Is this the last of what you have left? Unfortunately yes. Some friends over the years have all purchased me a box and I'm eternally grateful to them. But I told my wife we're not going to be purchasing anymore. Purchasing anymore at that cost. I've lived my dream and what happens happens. So take it on the chin. I really want to believe that Mark is alive and well because of sheer will and his passion for surfing. But most likely it's because of this one specific medication. Sail the boat back and take it from there. Sail the boat. If I sail the boat then I'll definitely buy some more. But we shall see. We shall see. No regrets. Mark has already shared his life and his passion with so many people and we're extremely grateful that he allowed us to share his story with you. Yes but this is also the point where we feel like we have an opportunity to possibly extend his life just a little bit further. Just long enough for him to get home to South Africa to see his wife and his family. Yeah and we're not exactly sure how to do that but we feel like with your help anything is possible. So here's our idea. Please share this story with AstraZeneca. Yep ask them to please sponsor Mark. And if you work for AstraZeneca or AstraZeneca if you're watching this right now then we're asking you to please send him more of this very special medication. Just just a little bit longer. He needs a little more time. If you work for an organization or know of an organization that helps people like Mark buy affordable medications then please send us an email. He would absolutely love to know about it. Yes and if you're interested in purchasing Millennium it is for sale. You'll find a link for the boat down in the description below. And no matter where Mark's journey goes from here the message that he inspires is clear. To realize one's dream after 17 18 years of persevering there were lots of times I thought oh I'm never gonna get there I'm never gonna get there. You just keep focused and I got here. Can't quite believe I'm here. So yeah even if you get cancer don't give up just keep going.