The Survivorship Project
The Survivorship Project is a podcast dedicated to sharing inspiring stories of cancer survivors and thrivers who have defied the odds, expert insights from leading health professionals and holistic healers, and practical tools for thriving beyond a diagnosis. This show is a beacon of hope, resilience, and empowerment for anyone navigating the survivorship journey—whether in recovery, treatment, or supporting a loved one.
The Survivorship Project
They Referred Him to Hospice. He Ran a Marathon Instead – Marcos Jarvis on Cancer, Wim Hof & Mindset
What would you do if doctors told you that you had terminal cancer with just weeks to live? It's a question no one wants to face, but one that Marcos Jarvis confronted head-on in October 2019.
The diagnosis was devastating: stage four advanced, incurable pancreatic cancer with secondary growth in his liver. Doctors offered palliative chemotherapy and hospice care—essentially preparing Marcos for the end. But looking at his four-year-old son running across the playground after receiving the news, Marcus and his wife made a powerful decision that would change everything: "We can't let him down."
What followed was nothing short of extraordinary. While undergoing 35 rounds of chemotherapy, Marcos completely transformed his approach to health and life. He overhauled his diet, eliminating all sugars, alcohol, and processed foods. He began exercising—not gentle movement, but running to and from chemotherapy sessions with his pump still attached. He embraced cold water therapy and specialised breathwork through the Wim Hof Method, discovering that these practices helped him manage treatment side effects while building remarkable resilience.
Against all medical expectations, Marcos's tumours began to shrink dramatically. What was meant to be a journey toward acceptance of death became a pathway to healing and transformation. Today, Marcos is cancer-free and thriving as an ultra-endurance athlete, certified Wim Hof instructor, and founder of Warrior's Breath. He wakes at 5 a.m. daily for Tai Chi, breathwork, and a six-mile run, practices intermittent fasting, and continues his cold water immersion practice—now teaching others these powerful techniques.
Through his organisation and his work with the WOLO (We Only Live Once) charity, Marcos supports cancer patients and their families, recognising that a cancer diagnosis affects the entire family unit. His message is powerful yet simple: whatever mountain stands before you, you can move it. Every person has a warrior inside—it's about finding the trigger to awaken them.
Ready to explore how breathwork, cold exposure therapy, or mindset shifts could transform your healing journey? Connect with Marcos through Warriors Breath and discover what's possible when you refuse to accept limits.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
• Connect with Marcos on Instagram or Facebook
• Warrior's Breath
• Wim Hof Method
• WOLO Foundation
________
If you want to be a guest on the show, email Carsten directly at ckpleiser@gmail.com
Please remember to leave a review for the show and hit the Follow button to stay updated about new episodes.
Hello everyone. Today's guest is Marcos Jarvis, a former builder and carpenter who, in October 2019, was diagnosed with stage four advanced incurable pancreatic cancer, with secondary metastasis in the liver. At the time, he wasn't looking after his health. He was working hard raising a young child and had no sense of the transformation lay ahad had referred to hospice. Marcos made a decision to do everything he could to take control of his healing. Alongside 35 rounds of chemotherapy and surgery, he overhauled his lifestyle, educated himself on cancer and began training in cold exposure and breathwork. He is now a certified Wim Hof Method instructor, ultra-endurance athlete, a certified Wim Hof Method instructor, ultra endurance athlete, keynote speaker and deeply involved with Volo we Only Live Once charity. He's also the founder of Warrior's Breath. Markos, I'm beyond excited to have you here and thank you so much for dedicating your time on this beautiful sunny Wednesday afternoon, and I feel like if we both can just help one person going through cancer with this episode, I think we have already made it all worth it. Once again, thank you so much for being here.
Marcos:Thank you. Thank you for that introduction. That sounds like it doesn't even sound like me, Just like well, who is that person you're talking to talking about?
Carsten:So, yeah, it's definitely been a massive achievement to actually be here sitting in front of you right now, considering I was told I wasn't going to make it yeah, take us back to that moment, that dark moment in october 2019, and before we do that, maybe quickly, in like 60 seconds what was life like before the diagnosis and what was your relationship with your body and your mind and your health during that time?
Marcos:yeah, before I actually got diagnosed, I was working as a builder. I had my own firm, so we were renovating houses, bathrooms, kitchens, you know the whole lot. I was overworked, overstressed, trying to get quotes done and not eating properly, always down the path or a quick sandwich in the bakers with a donut afterwards, not enough water, totally dehydrated, without realizing type situations like that, just trying to work and get things done and to raise a family, me and my wife looking after a four-year-old little boy and then just trying to bring him into the world. So thankfully.
Carsten:But yeah, that was what I was going through at that time and then all of a sudden you went to the doctors for some stomach pain, right, and then you had a ct scan and after that ct scan you were called into a room. Tell us about that situation. Can you relive that moment for us a little bit here, so people can understand how you felt when doctors gave you that news that no one wants to hear?
Marcos:Taking it back a little bit. To be fair, I was a typical man. I didn't even have a doctor's at that point and I wasn't registered anywhere or anything and I started having these stomach pains. So I got registered in an emergency appointment and they'd done a few sort of like examinations and said oh, it's like gastro problems, take these tablets. So I'd done that and then we were back and forth because it didn't fix the problem throughout the doctors and they said obviously you know, we'll go down the route of looking at a ct scan and do a blood test. So so they'd done that and obviously the blood test, human markers were supposed to be 0.5, and mine were 115, something like that. So that was one indication. That was like, wow, something's drastically gone wrong here.
Marcos:Then obviously I had the CT scan and then I got called into the oncology office and I remember there was six people in the room when me and my wife went in there and they said unfortunately, mr Jarvis, you have stage four, advanced incurable cancer. There's nothing that we can do apart from palliative chemo and we'll assign you to a hospice. And me and my wife just sat there in total silence and I remember my wife saying so what does stage four mean? And no one answered and I turned and said to her unfortunately there isn't a stage five, so we had to try and process that and that was probably the most darkest thing that we'd ever done.
Marcos:We came out of that oncology office just walking down the corridor, just crying, just thinking this can't be happening, this is not right. So and just I don't know. Everything just went numb and dull and there was people walking past. You know, when you watch a film and everything around you goes in slow motion, you don't really hear anything apart from what's happening between, like me and hannah, my wife, that thing, and yeah, that is. That's a really eerie place to be, as if nothing else existed around you. So inside. So yeah, and I can still feel and goosebumps, just from that sickening feeling of being told that.
Carsten:Because it's just information, right? I mean, you come in there and you feel like you're the same person as you were before, but all of a sudden you have this big load on your body with information that people give you. Did they ever give you a prognosis in terms of how long you would have to live, or did you just figure it out, because they assigned you to a hospice, that it might be less than six months or whatever?
Marcos:yeah, I didn't ask for a prognosis and I said I don't want to know, uh. But obviously they said about the hospice and a lot of hospices only have a three-month budget for any one patient normally and obviously we started to Google my particular cancer and everything. All the stats were always coming back two weeks to three months max. So yeah we had to make a lot of decisions there and then oh man, crazy.
Carsten:And obviously I started to never look at google again because before the diagnosis, when I was in my symptoms phase, I kind of like was googling and I kind of like know the statistics, but then after I got diagnosed, I never, ever touched this again. I used the internet for like research on things, but obviously never googled like hey how long? Because it would screw with my mind.
Marcos:Basically, yeah yeah, yeah, it definitely did screw with our minds. Like I'd wake up in the middle of the night and a cold sweat, like thinking I'm already in a coffin and gosh, and sort of things like that, thinking I'm not going to make it, and like then I'd have to have a self-talk to myself in the middle of the night so I just cry my eyes out. Come on, pull it together. You've got some kind of hope here, sort of thing crazy.
Carsten:How did the first few days after diagnosis look like?
Marcos:when we came out of the oncology office we had to go and pick our little boy up. He was four years old at the time and still waits for emotional or even fingering out now. But when we went to pick him up he was in reception and he came out of reception, out of his classroom, running across the playground, thought like mommy, daddy are all happy and smiling, and everything else. I remember me and my wife turning to each other and just going. We can't let him down. We've got to take this every step of the way. Whatever it takes, how long it takes, we will have to put everything into the place for that little boy.
Marcos:And that was almost when the turning point began for us. It wasn't two weeks down the line or anything else, because we felt that we didn't have time to wallow. We were just like we can't procrastinate on this because if we've got any type of chance, we need to step now. And I think seeing my little boy running across that playground, that was the one thing that really drove it home to the situation that we're in and the devastation that would come to that little boy at that moment, sort of inside. So yeah, pretty much things changed very quickly for us.
Carsten:It seems like the healing process started even before the treatment started, which is amazing, right, because I had a similar thing, like the moment I was walking off the hospital I was changing my mindset and looking at alternative solutions. Wow, that seems like very similar.
Marcos:Yeah, and like you said earlier, I walked in the oncologist's office on my own two feet and I was still Marcos, and then, when they gave me the news, I walked out of there still on my own two feet, but, like you say, with that heavy burden on top of me, and it was just words that someone had told me, and it was what me and my wife chose to do with those words, which was our course of action going on from there wow, crazy.
Carsten:So obviously they then prescribed like palliative chemo, which is usually prescribed to just relieve symptoms but not to treat anything. So how many days later did you start your protocol of chemotherapy and can you? You run us through like what did you do during that day, how did you feel during these first few sessions and what was your mindset at this stage when you were told it was palliative? But you know you were still believing strongly, you can deal with this.
Marcos:I remember we had the oncologist appointment and then the this was on the Thursday I think and then Monday I went into the hospital and have the PICC line set into my arm and then I had my first round of chemotherapy on that Friday. So it was literally from pretty much a week from the oncology office where I'd gone into the chemotherapy and I remember the first round of chemotherapy I've never felt so sick in a month. It's like I tried to think back of like the worst hangover I've ever had or something like that, and nothing ever came close to how I felt on that moment. And I remember coming out of there and we hadn't put much in place by then and just feeling so sick, tired, lethargic, couldn't focus, I couldn't speak properly. I sounded like I had been to the dentist because there's a chemotherapy.
Marcos:I was on the cold feeling sensations I had in my hands and feet for the chemotherapy that I was on and I was told to buy plastic knives and forks because their metal uh knives and forks had been too cold for my hands. My wife was supposed to get anything out of the freezer for me. I wasn't allowed to drink water that was too cold and all this sort of stuff put in place. So we were like, right, okay, what can we do? And then, obviously, we started to research and then, the first thing we were done, we changed our mindset and then started to look into diet because we thought if we're gonna have to go through this chemotherapy, we're gonna have to try and nourish my body to be able to strong enough to be able to take this chemotherapy, because we've all been told sickness, diarrhea, you know, stomach upset, mind fog and everything. And it's all so true.
Carsten:Yeah.
Marcos:As you probably know as well, sort of from that. And yeah, but we found that just changing our diet on a slightly healthier thing, we cut out instantly, cut out all sugars, all alcohol, all processed foods and just started eating really healthy, good stuff to give ourselves some energy to be able to go through each day. So I think then that was probably after the first round, and then the second round it seemed to be a little bit better and then obviously the third round, that's when I started putting walking into play, started to read about exercise and then like cold therapy and sort of stuff like that. So we'd crammed so much into one month. It was just mind-blowing. Our heads were just full of so much information Because we thought if you want to beat cancer, you have to know about cancer. So we read everything there was that we could actually get hold of with research, which would obviously help us in the long run Crazy.
Carsten:Yeah, especially with the nutrition part. That's also the first thing that I changed. Immediately. It's similar to you. But then I went to my second chemotherapy appointment and I was telling my doctors, hey, I'm doing all these crazy good things, you know, and they were like it doesn't matter what you eat, it doesn't matter what you eat. And that kind of brought my mind a little bit down because I was like it's coming from an authority person, right, yeah. But then I realized that doctors don't really have the nutrition education that nutritionists have or holistic healers have. So back in the days I learned one lesson from this Never, ever tell your oncologist what you're doing.
Carsten:I mean, I'm not saying that everyone should follow this advice now, because obviously we're not giving any medical advice in this podcast or not saying anything about what you should do and shouldn't do. But I learned my own personal lessons never tell them what you're doing, yeah, so okay. So nutrition started first. Then you did some research. You read some books. One of the books was how not to die. It's a great book about that's it.
Marcos:you know recipes, right? Yeah, yeah, and the truth about cancer was another book by ty boollinger that really went in depth into how cancer forms in your body and reacts to certain things and everything else, and so that was a lot of help there.
Carsten:Yeah, have you read Radical Remission by Kelly Turner as well?
Marcos:Yeah, Radical Remission, gut Health, like you name it, the Autotomic Habits and everything else, david Goggins and all that type of stuff. Because I just wanted to go brutal. I was like, right, okay, let's bring this fight on, type thing. So yeah, I got all my inspirational sort of like in my head and, like you say, the diet. It might have not done anything but it made me feel better, stronger, more able to go and take on what I needed to take on.
Carsten:So I think exactly, and I'm not sure if you feel the same, but obviously I was given also a stage four diagnosis where there is no stage five. Right, it's basically the pretty much the shittiest situation you can get. That's it, yeah. But then this kind of diagnosis gave me also the purpose of the urgence to just say, hey, it can only get better, it can't get any worse, because worse is death.
Marcos:Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, what's the worst can happen? Exactly so do you think?
Marcos:you would have the same mindset if you were diagnosed with stage one early stage cancer or no, no, I think they've done me a favor by saying that there's nothing that we can do, so we had to go and do our own research, we had to just go right. Okay, we could have accepted what they said or we could actually go and do something about her and, I think, being diagnosed. I'm like not saying anything about undermining any other cancer, because cancer is cancer, doesn't matter what stage or level it is. It's a rubbish situation to be in, without swearing, and it's a really, really deeply tight thing.
Marcos:But yeah, I do believe that the higher the stage and the less likely you are to live, the more you want to fight, sort of thing. I mean, there's one story that I've always read. It's like they've taken someone out in the middle of the lake. If you're all flying, sitting on the boat and everything else, it's not until you get chucked overboard and someone puts their foot on your head. That's when you really start fighting, when you've got nothing else to lose. I think and I say, which I think is a great analogy for where we've been like it's a crazy mind opener, this thing.
Carsten:It really teaches you something and I feel always it's like a communicator. It will tell you something. I think it's an opportunity to learn something about yourself and to really make drastic changes, because it doesn't come from nowhere. There's something there that has caused this. It could be genetic, of course, but it can also be influenced by lifestyle choices mine was definitely lifestyle choices.
Marcos:From all the stuff I put myself through over the years leading up to that, like trauma and accidents and sort of things like that bad diet, not enough sleep, too much stress, too worry it all contributes to your body feeling weaker and weaker and obviously there's a point where your body says, look, I'm going to teach you a lesson, and if you don't listen, this is what's going to happen. So you need to change something. And luckily I did listen and we changed absolutely everything.
Carsten:Yeah, we want to talk about all the changes you've done in a bit, but has there been anyone that inspired you to make those changes or did it all come internally from your intuition?
Marcos:it came? I believe it comes from your mindset. You need to have that mindset to say, right, let's go and get some inspiration, let's go and get uh, the momentum moving, and without your mindset you would just go no, I'm not gonna worry. And so I believe it comes within. But we all need help from outside sources from friends, from family, from books. You read inspirational people and that's the biggest thing. I believe that just go out and search for something that makes you feel good and if it's going to uplift you, like a story or a mantra or a podcast, just listen to it. What have you got to lose? Plain and simple.
Carsten:Was there anything that you had to let go of or distance yourself, as well as from adding things to your life?
Marcos:Yes, there was all the negative things in life. I decided that I had to let go of. I had to forgive, like if you had any problems in life, just let it go. It wasn't important anymore. And I noticed I didn't really have to let anything go. And I noticed I didn't really have to let anything go. But I noticed like negative things.
Marcos:Because I was on such a positive journey, negative things just seemed to disappear. Friends that were negative vibes, they just seemed to step away from me as if to say you're way too positive for us, I've got to go, sort of thing. And they didn't understand either, because I was trying all this new radical like stuff like exercise and, uh, cold water and all this type of stuff alongside the conventional side of things as well. And I must admit, a lot of people didn't really agree with what I was doing. But I was like, well, I'm gonna die anyway. What's the harm in just trying, so on.
Marcos:So this, let's give it a go and see what happens. You know then, and at the end of the day I always like I'm not pushing this onto you, I'm doing it to myself. And this is what I advise everyone in life. You know there's, if you want to start a business, go start a business. If you want to start a business, go start a business. If you want to change your way in life or change your diet or go from meat eater to vegetarian, just to see what it's like, there's no harm in just trying and that was the one thing that I found that was very difficult for people for me to change in the radical ways I was.
Carsten:Yeah, it's crazy how people often look into the future and say like, hey, one day I'll do this, another day I'll do that, and then we come into our situation where there's like a literally urgency there and you realize you don't get that.
Carsten:Yeah, you just do whatever you feel like is right and you just do it. There's no like ifs and when, or what ifs or whatever. And now I felt the same as well, like similar to you. I kept most of the things I was doing to myself because I didn't want anyone's negative energy to tell me something about hey, no one has proven this in the study or whatever. I couldn't care less about this. I was like I know it was right for me and whatever everyone else was saying I wasn't really paying attention to. And you're right, you're filtering out the people that are not good for you and you're attracting a positive energy that's good for you and that's probably like mostly your family, your friends, your kid. You're right, yeah, the ones you can't get can't divorce.
Marcos:Yeah, just literally. But I found obviously, when people spoke to me and they'd give me advice and stuff like that and I'd listen and I'd filter out and think, right, well, that's doesn't sit right with me or that does sit right with me and I just a lot of the time I just went back to basic gut reaction. If it felt good, I'd give it a go, and most of it, with the chemotherapy it felt right for me to do chemotherapy. So I went ahead and done it because I knew that was my comfort blanket, that was my insurance, that I had another soldier watching my back type thing, and I thought I just need everything. You can't win a war with one person. As such, you need an infantry of like siren, if we same as football or rugby or cricket.
Marcos:You need a team exactly you know my team was chemotherapy, cold water, running food. You know that was my team research exercise exactly.
Carsten:I actually felt really good when I went to chemotherapy sessions. Right, I had like this mindset of like healing liquid rather than like anything poisonous. I even did like a meditation on it to help other cancer patients with it and I was probably like the most joyous person around there. You know, I was talking to people running around having my little you know talks with everyone, made lots of friends, but yeah.
Carsten:I see it the same way, like without chemo, without the traditional traditional medicine, I probably wouldn't be here because it was giving me the right impulse from the medical side and I was able to go on treatments that you know were pretty good and it helped me really well. And but I say I would say that it's not only the only options, like everything together makes the whole puzzle, you know it's right.
Marcos:Yeah, yeah, like, like you say, steve jobs or bill gates or someone like that. They they probably initially started the programs for the iphone and the windows and everything else, but then they soon needed a team to start writing the software and everything else.
Carsten:So so yeah, I believe everything works yeah from one person feeding out to a team so I can can imagine you went to the chemo sessions and, if it's similar to me, after a few sessions you have like a scan right, and I think in your case the scan, against all expectations, showed amazing results already. Can you tell us what the doctor said to you and how it felt?
Marcos:I remember by that time I'd had six rounds of chemotherapy as well as changed my diet. I'd started exercising I'd actually started running by that point as well. On chemotherapy I'd started, like I say, cold water therapy, meditation, tai chi, acupuncture, homeopath, absolutely everything, cbd oil, you name it. I'd chucked everything, absolutely everything, cbd oil, you know, I'd chucked everything. And we went to the three month scan, which obviously I didn't think I'd pass three months anyway. And when the scan results came back, one of the tumors alone on my liver was 12 centimeters across on the first scan and the second scan on the third, three months later, already reduced down to eight centimeters. So it reduced like 35 and that was across the board. So all the tumors had shrunk down that much.
Marcos:And me and my wife just looked at each other and just we're just started crying and we were like and you could see the oncologist is almost like, well, you're not out of the woodwork yet. But I'm like you don't understand the milestone that we've just got through. This is our first aid station through an ultra, you know, and we've still got many places, aid stations, to go, but we've got that first step, we've got that first milestone. Sort of thing is a good result, and we went and celebrated a local pub on the way home. My wife had a gin and tonic and I had a sparkling water because obviously I'd cut out all alcohol. But no, we actually went and celebrated that. So as a small win, going on the bigger things and it's important.
Carsten:it's important to have these little days, date days or something to look forward to, because it gives you like a bit of motivation to you know, to keep on or something to look forward to, because it gives you like a bit of motivation to, you know, to keep on going and to look forward to something. And I think you, actually you ran to the chemotherapy sessions, right? The nurses must have thought like you're crazy, like you're probably wearing your running shoes, your running outfit, you know, showing up getting your infusion.
Marcos:It was about seven miles from my house to the oncology well, to the hospital. So I'd obviously either run there, but then it was a case of I felt a little bit uncomfortable because obviously you turn up all like hot and everything else and like, uh, I'm gonna have to stop doing this. So then I started just going there, like with my wife dropping me off, and then I'd run home like seven, eight miles or I'd take a detour and things like that sort of thing, with the pump and the PICC line still attached, because my chemotherapy was six hours infusion in hospital with a 48 hour slow infusion pump to take home for two days off. And so, yeah, I used to run around with that on my belt whilst exercising and stuff like what you were saying about having a goal or a motivation.
Marcos:I remember the lady from the hospice wanted me to sign a waiver to say whether I wanted to die at home or in the hospice and I said I'm not going to do that, but what I'm going to do is sign a waiver to a marathon because that is going to be my goal I will run a marathon before I die. And yeah, I always get that as motivation. And that's where obviously the exercise started coming in. And then I ended a 5k race and then it was a 10k race and then a half marathon, and then my first marathon happened to fall. I had chemo on a Friday and the marathon was on a Saturday morning. So I turned up Saturday morning just receiving chemotherapy I still had the pump and the PICC line attached, sort of thing, and yeah, I ran that marathon that day.
Carsten:And I cried my eyes out.
Marcos:when I went over the finish line sort of thing, my family were there and everything.
Carsten:You're so inspiring. You must meet Phil Degree, because he's a guy I interviewed a couple of weeks ago and he also runs ultra marathons. I'm sure you probably connected already, but yeah, similar great story there. But, oh my God, I missed actually a few radiation consulting appointments because I went surfing instead.
Marcos:Yeah, yeah, that's the thing Like they don't understand the endorphins that you release for your body by doing something that drives the adrenaline is incredible, and obviously you get that a lot from the cold water therapy. We're going to talk about this in a bit.
Carsten:I want to learn how you got into this whole Wim Hof method. You became an instructor as well. I always want to say, like that the doctors give you your own script, right, you can't make their reality yours, because they're very much trained on one area and they're really good at this area and research and knowing all these randomized controlled trial studies, but they're not an expert in you, right? They don't know Marcos Jarvis, they don't know what you're made of. They don't know Marcos javis, they don't know what you're made of. They don't know that you're running and doing cold. You know cold exposure therapy and all of these other things, and that's something I feel like is missing in the cancer world, like this whole integrative approach. It's getting better and better, but there's so much more people can do these days and this one lesson to take away is like yeah, just do it exactly.
Marcos:Give it a go, go for a walk. I mean, I did take it to the extreme. I got to the point where I had 35 rounds of chemotherapy and I'd run two and a half thousand miles whilst on chemotherapy. I ran ultra marathons like 50k, 55k ultras whilst on chemotherapy and things like that.
Marcos:So yeah I did take it to the extremes. Oh my god. Probably could have like backed off a little bit and like gone, uh, lesser distances and everything else. But my idea was, you know, if I was going to die, I wanted to be the fittest cancer patient that was going to go out that way and I'm sure it also played a role, because you want to be a role model for your kid, for your wife.
Carsten:You want to be someone that way for our train, and I'm sure it also played a role because you want to be a role model for your kid, for your wife. You want to be someone that your little one looks up to, no matter what happens, and that's a really strong mindset. I guess like if you today hear someone complaining about the weather oh it's so hot here, or the train is late for two minutes, or I couldn't get whatever you think about like what are you talking about? Really?
Marcos:like I know, you know, yeah, you just want to tap me on the shoulder and say, yeah, exactly I just tell you a story.
Carsten:Yeah, I wish more people without cancer would listen to our conversation, because then they could make possibly the changes before it's too late. Right, because you don't need always a trauma in life to change. You can always do this beforehand.
Marcos:But and that's- obviously where I'm going down the route of the keynote speakers to try and get people understand that you don't need to have cancer to change. You know you can make the decision right here, right now, and it's a case of you can switch your mindset within seconds, but it's going to take weeks and months to actually get that progression going. If you want to, you make that mindset change now, but you know it's going to be three months before you hit the goal that you want and go from there it's about consistency.
Carsten:Can you tell us about your day today? What do you do in the morning, from waking up to the end of the day? How does your day look like?
Marcos:yep, uh. I get up at five o'clock every morning. I normally have a glass of water with a slice of lemon and Himalayan rock salt in that. Then I'll go and do half an hour Tai Chi or breath work. Then I will go for a six mile run, then wake my wife up with a cup of coffee and my little boy up ready for school. Then we'll go and do school and then I'll do like Wolo with the charity work and with the Warriors Breath setting up ready for retreats and things like that.
Marcos:And then on certain days I am part of a running group, so I'll go that in the evening. So I'd already run six miles in the morning and then I'll go and do another running session in the evening. Or I'd have cold plunge breath work or sauna, because saunas are amazing, like they're so overlooked and you can get so much out of what a sauna will do for your body as well. So okay. So yeah, the typical day, and also I only I fast as well. So I'd only eat from 12 till 6 each day. So I'll have breakfast at 12 and then I'll have a big meal at 6 and just drink water for the rest of the day, sort of thing, herbal teas and things like that. But yeah, that's the typical day, up at 5 to bed, about 9, 10 o'clock.
Carsten:So, obviously, then you read the Wim Hof Method. What made you decide to become, or to focus on that and to become, an instructor?
Marcos:my sister-in-law's husband who actually gave me the wim hof book and he said I don't know whether it's going to make any difference, but it's really helped me with my depression and everything else.
Marcos:And obviously with chemotherapy you feel rock bottom and it was a case of you know. If it's going to help with just feeling low or rubbish or anything else, let's give it a go. So, yeah, I read Wim Hof's book and then it just drove something home and, like I say, it felt right in my gut and I was like this just makes sense, just to reset the body, bring more alkaline within the system through breath work, through the cold water, through releasing adrenaline, which is a fight or flight situation which brings on your fighter t cells and all sorts of stuff like that. So, yeah, I started doing the cold plunge and that was within the first, probably the third week I was into chemo therapy that I read the Wim Hof book and now I started to put everything in place from there yeah, so can you run us a little bit through for someone who doesn't really know the breathing methods or like how the protocol looks like for the cold water therapy?
Carsten:again, like this is not medical advice, please check with the doctor before you can do this stuff. But still exactly. But just like in case you are approved to do that, let's hear from you like what you would recommend and how does it all work on a physiological level, etc yeah, normally, like I say, I'll do a breathwork session in the morning every morning, which is about 20-25 minutes.
Marcos:It helps relax the body but also puts your body into a state of homeostasis where you're stressing your body and then bringing it back to a balance and then stressing your body, bringing it back to a balance, so it's almost teaching your body. You can go over to that side and then come back and typical breath work will be 40 deep breaths into your belly chest and let go, belly chest and let go. Then on the last breath you'll let all the air out and then you'll do a retention hold for 45 seconds or as long as you can. Then you'll do a big breath in and then you'll do a 15 seconds, what they call a recovery breath, and this is where your body realkalines and rebalances, resets, and then you'll go into the next round and you'll find each round that you, because you're displace your like your co2 levels with the oxygen, that you'll find that you can hold your breath longer on each round. So normally four rounds is enough to bring your body into a very nice relaxed state. And then obviously the cold is another mindset situation. You only really need two minutes in the cold. But that's completely opposite. Rather than doing the fast inhale, let go, inhale, let go.
Marcos:When you're in the water, it's more of a concentrated breath slow in and out in and just focusing on yourself. Because when you're in cold water you can't focus on anything else and that's where a lot of silence comes around you, and then you can have a check in with your body and actually have time for yourself in the cold. But there are so many more benefits, like you release up to 500% of your adrenaline. For the first 30 seconds when you get into that water, which is obviously your fight your body is screaming get out of here. But then you control that and then your body understands that it is capable of actually doing that.
Marcos:And there are when you go. We could speak for hours about the science, of what Wim Hof has pushed beyond boundaries. When you start reading this stuff, it just starts making sense and our bodies are capable of doing this. And we do need that shock and uncomfortableness to be able to grow. And that's what is more of anything, of putting yourself in an uncomfortable position to be able to increase and grow, whereas if you're in a comfortable position, you become like a stagnant pond you don't move, nothing flows.
Carsten:But when you are moving, when you are doing all kinds of different activities like this, you're flowing like a nice clear river it's beautiful, and the similar response happens when you do exercise, when you lift weights, because the body is exposed to stress and has to overcompensate to get back into homeostasis and these methodologies. I mean, when we talk about cold water, we're not talking about like 15 degrees, we talk about two degrees or something like that right, yeah, yes, yeah.
Marcos:I've got a chiller which is hooked up to a cold tub here, and the water is always down at two to three degrees.
Carsten:there is always cold and then with the whim of breathing that's, I did it like a couple of weeks and it was amazing. All of a sudden you could hold your breath for like three minutes. It's like never in my life did I do three minutes? Could do 90 seconds maybe or so, but like three minutes.
Marcos:But you can find that you can build it up. And there's one thing that really stuck in my mind, because it's almost like high altitude training, so you increase your amount of blood cells, something that I don't correct, don't like the quality on this, but it's something like that. So when you're going into chemotherapy your blood cells is getting destroyed. So if you can go in with a few more blood cells that you can use to almost throw away, so that's always like right, I'm definitely doing the breath work literally. It's now a way of life for me and that's one reason why I trained as a qualified wim hof instructor as well to pass.
Marcos:I'm not saying the Wim Hof method beat cancer, but it certainly helped. It certainly helped me feel better, stronger, I'd recover quicker. You know, I'd run a hundred K on a Saturday and then by Monday I was back out running six months and that was, I found, because of the breath, work and the cold and everything. The recovery that I was bringing through was just incredible.
Carsten:And now you coach and teach people. You have retreats, you have your own wellness area in your garden and I need to come there. I live in Reading, which is not too close to it, but I definitely want to sign up. So, if people are in the Sussex area in the UK, marcos runs these retreats and these sessions where you can just experience sauna and cold water therapy, and I will share the link with you as well in the show notes.
Carsten:And again, not everything is for everyone, but what we want to try to get out of you is that you can try it. You can try it for yourself and see what you feel, how you feel, and we're not saying this is going to be beating cancer or anything like that. It's just one of these tools that you can have in your toolbox that might help you and it might not help you, or it might be the best thing in the world. So you know, with your doctor's permission, maybe speak to Marcos as well, get trained on it properly before you do it. But yeah, it's definitely something you could explore and I hope that some listeners might take up on it and maybe explore it a little bit more. The research behind it is amazing.
Marcos:The biggest problem with cold water so many people fear it. So with the retreat I've got is a bell tent where we do meditation and breath work. There is the cold tub which is two to three degrees, but there's also a sauna as well, which I built myself. So there are the options you can just come along and do the breath work, come along and do the sauna, or come along and do the cold. But I find with the sauna there almost gives people a little bit more of a oh yeah, I'll give that a go, but obviously you have to warm up after the cold plunge before you go into the sauna. But a lot more people seem to be more acceptable about yeah, I'll do the cold because I've got the sauna there, but obviously you're getting the best of both worlds from the extreme heat as well as the extreme cold.
Carsten:So yeah, I must come. I must come because yeah yes you're more than welcome and even like shower. I mean, even if you start with a shower like cold shower to get used to it. Right, that's also like a bit of a start. You don't need to invest in a custom-made bath at this stage.
Marcos:Just try it out to have a cold shower and start from 10 seconds maybe to 15 to 20 to 30 you know it's the easiest way to get into that would be have a normal shower and then finish with 10 seconds cold for one week and then normal shower and then 15 seconds and then just build it up and build it up I mean, I haven't had a hot shower in four years.
Carsten:I don't even bother anymore yeah, and do you recommend starting with the legs and the extremities first, or do you go immediately all in under the shoulders and everything, or what's your recommendation?
Marcos:I now just yeah, I now just turn it on, let it go cold and then just in. But yeah, I would say, put your hands on like do your arms, and then maybe one shoulder, then the other, and it's when it hits the top of your head, that's when, oh my god. So yeah, but you, what you want is, it's not supposed to be comfortable, it's not supposed to be a lovely, hot, luxurious shower. It's supposed to be like, put you in a situation, like your body's saying get out of here yeah but you know you can handle it sort of thing and you're.
Marcos:You're just livening up your system, boosting your immune system, helping with your circulation and everything, probably inflammation reduction. I would say yeah there are studies on axospondylitis and now, like arthritis and everything else, they're finding that the cold and the breath work is helping reduce inflammation so the joints can move a little bit better.
Carsten:Amazing. And then every time someone books like a retreat ticket with you, like a certain percentage goes to a foundation that's called volo volo. Yeah, we only live once. It's in sussex right as well sussex.
Marcos:Yeah, we look after cancer families all through sussex and we don't just look after the patient, we look after the whole family. So the wives, the kids, whether it's the child has got cancer or whether the adult have got cancer, as long as you've got a child under the age of 16, uh, we can obviously help. If not, obviously there is advice that we can help other people as well. But yeah, it's all about trying to create a healthy well-being community within the family and within friend and elsewhere. As we've found a lot of, it's only the cancer patients that gets looked after.
Marcos:And I believe that it was harder for my wife and my little boy and my family around me, because I just had cancer. I just had one thing to focus on, one thing to concentrate on, whereas my wife was like, oh, I can't make sure that Marcos is alive, I'll make sure archie gets to school, and what about this? What about that? So she had a lot to think about and I think the family a lot of the time gets left behind. Yeah, and that's obviously where we try and bring everything together as one. So, yeah, but yes, obviously I offer the retreats for families and things like that as well, amazing, amazing.
Carsten:So do you think your purpose has changed after the diagnosis, from pre-cancer to now after cancer?
Marcos:Oh, without a doubt I have got such a focus on helping other people to try and live a better way of life, whether it's pre-cancer or like. If you've got like, if you're a fit, healthy person, you could still do certain things to improve that fitness and healthiness. If you're have gone through a diagnosis, you need as much help as there that you can gain sort of thing. So you know if I can help in any way. I speak to people all over the world now on phone and everything else, just trying to answer the voice. I'm not a professional but I just say that what I done. It helped me. So I'm not trying to push medical like help or advice. I'm just saying do your own research. If you feel good, if it feels good in your mind and your gut, just give it a go.
Carsten:Exactly, eat a carrot, yeah.
Marcos:Eat some broccoli. I mean, I snack on a bag of salad rather than a packet of crisps. I read books like Crispy Cancer and all things like that, where he would just make his own granola and just have these massive mounds of salads and he said I'd get jaw-ache just eating so much greens out of it.
Carsten:Do you have a personal goal or anything that you would like your living legacy be in this world, or anything like that I would like to show people that whatever mountain has been put in front of them, they have the ability to move it.
Marcos:Everyone has a warrior inside and it's just finding that trigger to wake that warrior. And I would love to do talks to a million people and just guide them in almost like a better way of life and just try and educate, which I had to do. I had to do a lot of education to research to be able to get to where I am right now and so if I can take shortcuts for other people, that's just a simpler step for everyone else, just to actually help other people.
Carsten:Amazing. And now to someone out there who's been diagnosed with stage four. This all sounds very positive. We are talking about this as if nothing happened to us, but do you sometimes fall into dark places, and then how do you come out of them? Is that something you experience still?
Marcos:I do sometimes because, I must admit, when I got the all clear from cancer, I almost lost my way because I had nothing to strive or drive for anymore. But now, being an ultra athlete, I've got a 50k ultra in two weeks time and I've got 100k ultra two weeks after that and then I've got I'm going for 100 miler this year. So so, yeah, I've got goals like that and family holidays, and so I've shifted my focus over to becoming a better public speaker, a better wim hop instructor. But, yes, you do fall into that dark space. Like you know, am I really sort of good enough to do this sort of thing? And then you, like you, pick yourself up and say, well, look where you've come from yeah, you know and like I remember, a friend of mine said a quote to me.
Marcos:He said it will be a shame for you to go back and change someone's taps when you can change someone's life yeah and I keep that going on in my head and it's like when you go on stage to do a public talk, you feel sick, you feel nervous and everything else, and I'm always like, don't forget, this is not about you, this is about the people you're talking yeah is. I forget how you feel. Just think one person like you say today, one person it might affect enough to actually make a change?
Carsten:yeah, absolutely. It's very hard keeping that mindset focused and yeah, once I mean for me as well like when I didn't have. When I was in remission, I was like what is my goal now? Like what am I going to focus on now? So what would you do? Like I think you are doing everything right now to make sure you don't get cancer again. Yes, and my question is what would you do if tomorrow you go to a scan and they said like oh my God, it's now everywhere again?
Marcos:Yeah, I would look at everything that I've done over the last five years and step it up. Literally I'd be like, right, like right. Okay, forget about the two and a half thousand miles, I want you to run five thousand miles now. That's it sort of thing and, like you said, my purpose. Now I have cancer as a training partner. You know, literally cancer is right there. Like every weight that I lift, cancer is trying to lift. That way I'm like, no, I'm going bigger than better than you. There's no way you're catching me. So are you want to do 50k?
Marcos:well, I'm doing 100 love that but no, if someone said to me tomorrow, unfortunately, your cancer's come back, I'd go right. I'm sticking my trainers on then and I'm getting back out that door. I'm eating more broccoli. I'm just sleeping better. I'm having more chemotherapy. Give me radiotherapy, chuck everything out. I will just get up and go again, and go again really and that's all. It just literally never, never give up, because if you do, that's when it will take you something to is the hospice still following up with you on something?
Carsten:are they calling you? Are they emailing you? Anything that's going on? What did you ever say to them?
Marcos:sorry guys, I don't need you. No, yeah, it's all right. They don't even know if I'm still alive or not, sort of.
Marcos:Thing but me and my wife always joke because I think their most hospices have a like a budget for each patient and like. I think it's about three, three months or so, but obviously it is ongoing and I always say that they'll be well annoyed with me because I'll still be living there five years later. Um, can you, you know, whilst you're here, Marcos, can you build another west wing for us and redecorate? Yeah, all right, no worries, fantastic, all joking aside, and I shouldn't judge fantastic. You know it's come from a scary place, something that I feel as though I don't have any fear of anymore. Yeah, and if it does come back, it does come back, but I will just have something in place, ready to go again. And if I can prevent it by eating healthy, sleeping, exercising I'm still running six miles every day, cold plunging every day, eating really well every day. Yeah, I'll probably have a piece of cake on my birthday and a glass of wine, but that's about it. So, yeah, I think it's having that fear of it does come back.
Carsten:It does keep me driven yes, exactly, and fear is an important factor. And if you can get rid of this fear and the stress and the anxiety around it, that's half the healing, because your body can finally focus on healing.
Marcos:Right, let's remove that stress One of the biggest things I learned. Yeah, yeah, meditation, I would probably say, is one of the best things to actually do in the world. Just before you go to bed, there's hundreds and thousands of videos on YouTube. Just put your earphones in and just fall asleep to. They're so amazing, yes, what you can do. But, like I say, just look after yourself. Yeah, that's the main thing, because we all know, when we eat a donut or something like that, that we shouldn't do it. Or if we have that extra pint, we shouldn't do it. And and it's getting that right. Okay, this is where I'm going to stop.
Carsten:I've had my fun and you know, so I just kept from there fantastic and now we're running out of time here and I probably think you want to run into the cold plunge in a bit because the weather is so nice. Yes, you have like two minutes for like quick fire questions, but before we do that, is there anything you feel like you want to share with the listeners? Because, because obviously the listeners are cancer diagnosed people that go on through cancer treatment, post-cancer survivors, all of these. So what's one thing I might have missed in this conversation that you want to maybe share?
Marcos:I would say, especially going through chemotherapy and everything else, because normal people are here and obviously we are down here, we're on chemotherapy. Just try little things. Try changing your diet, cutting out certain things, and whether you can feel that sense that you're coming up a little bit, feeling slightly better. So try a breath work, try a meditation, try a cold shower. Obviously ask medical advice and everything else, but there's so much research out there. Just have a look at things and just listen to your body and things will make sense when you start listening, because we don't listen to our bodies enough.
Marcos:There are the answers out there, but you've just got to quieten the mind and actually listen and just concentrate on yourself, because you're the most important thing at this precise moment. It doesn't matter what happens in the future. It doesn't matter what happens in the future. It doesn't matter what happens. You can't change the past, but you've got an option to change your future. So just look after yourself that's what I would say and just change that mindset, because mind and body is so important and gut health is so important.
Carsten:Fantastic, and people can reach out to you by email right On Instagram as well. Warrior Breath, I think, is the website as well. I can share this with you. Yes, warriors Breath.
Marcos:If not, they can email me or message me on Instagram or Facebook. Just as Marcos Jarvis, I'm always here to help answer any questions or just talk to people, because I know what a horrible situation it is. If you just want to rant, just phone me up. I see your broadcast. I just want to rant. Just phone me up. I see your broadcast. I just want to rant.
Carsten:Yeah, no worries, it's nice to have people like you in this world, because the cancer world needs that.
Marcos:Look what you've gone through and you're doing this. You're inviting people on for positive stories. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be talking.
Carsten:It's like you've got to get out of this dark mindset, the dark world of everyone. Oh, self-pity and all this. I think you've got to surround yourself with positive people, with energy, with hope, with you know, good vibe and all that, and I think that's what Get? Rid of the victim mentality.
Marcos:Exactly, get rid of the victim mentality. It won't do any good whatsoever.
Carsten:Exactly, any good whatsoever exactly, you only have one life, one body. So it's like you said in one of your podcasts, I think you said like imagine you have only one car for the rest of your life, you gotta look after it, right exactly.
Marcos:Yeah, yeah. So you'll change the oil. You'd make sure you put the right fuel in. You make sure the tires are good and everything. Yeah, you would look after that car because you know once it breaks you ain't getting another one Fantastic Before we wrap up like what's your favorite mantra or quote?
Carsten:you live by.
Marcos:Literally, there's nothing in this world you can't achieve unless you say no to it. If you say yes to it, you can give it a go and that's all it is. I've come from like a builder, where I never thought I'd change to a motivational speaker and I never thought that would happen. So it's only because I said yes to it. You know we do need to say yes to more things fantastic and you know we're capable of so much more than we actually realize yeah, I think I know the answer is the next one, but if you could gift everyone one daily habit, what would it be?
Marcos:oh god, I would say probably a good mindset, because a good mindset would allow you to make the right choices with food, make the right choices with cold bar running, exercise, just being with family and friends and having fun and having a laugh. So yeah, I would say it starts from the mindset.
Carsten:Yeah, great and the favorite thing your son has ever said to you.
Marcos:Oh, my God, he said the day I got clear from cancer. He said I am so proud of you. You are my hero and I will never forget it.
Carsten:Makes me cry every time and that's, I think, markus, that's a beautiful way to wrap this whole conversation up. I found it so inspiring. I hope we really stay in touch because you know you are just the source of inspiration, of positivity, of hope of healing in person, and I think cancer is one of the worst ways to meet some of the best people and I've met one of them today.
Carsten:Thank you so much, much mate for your time and may you live a long, healthy and happy life well, I've planned to run 100k on my 100th birthday, so I've got plenty of trying fantastic, exactly wonderful thank you so much, have a great afternoon and enjoy your cold plunge and your your sessions later on. And all the best for the 100 miler right yeah thank you and hope to catch up catch up soon take care, bye, bye, okay, see you later bye.
