Speakers Profile - Tim Baker










Travels From:
Gold Coast

Fee Range: E


Tim Baker was living the dream. A best-selling and award-winning surf writer with a beautiful family, a lifetime of exotic travel and a home walking distance to quality waves.

That all changed on July 7, 2015, when he was diagnosed, out of the blue, with stage 4, metastatic prostate cancer. So began a descent into the debilitating world of aggressive cancer treatments and a fight for a survival as brutal as any big wave hold down.

Tim speaks candidly and with a raw vulnerability about this perilous journey through chemotherapy, hormone therapy, radiation and surgery, and his own determined lifestyle strategies to maintain mind, body and spirit. Happily, surfing provided one of his most powerful forms of therapy, and writing about his experiences has proven deeply cathartic.

Each hear, over 1.5 million men are diagnosed with prostate cancer globally and over 350,000 lose their lives. In Australia, one in seven men will develop prostate cancer. Yet mainstream oncology concedes its ability to keep men with prostate cancer alive has outstripped its ability to manage the often-devastating side effects of treatment. Men with prostate cancer are living longer but with a steadily declining quality of life.

Through sharing his story, Tim has highlighted the need for a more integrative approach to cancer care. One in which cancer patients are given a sense of empowerment and agency in charting their path through treatment.

Tim's journey is one of confronting mortality, staring down fears, and working out what really matters in life.