An Australian castaway rescued off the coast of Mexico after three months stranded at sea has been given a clean bill of health by doctors
Sailor Tim Shaddock healthy after rescue He survived three months at sea on rainwater and tuna weighing 120kg before switching to ‘totally raw’ diet
An Australian castaway found at sea with his dog is doing well after three months of surviving on rainwater and tuna.
Tim Shaddock and his loyal pup Bella were rescued off the coast of Mexico last week after a helicopter with a tuna trawler spotted their catamaran.
The Sydney local was stranded in the Pacific Ocean after sailing from La Paz, Mexico, to French Polynesia in April, but a fierce storm took away electronics on his catamaran a few weeks into the voyage.
Footage of Mr Shaddock’s rescue showed the Sydney man emaciated and emaciated, having been on a bare-minimum diet for months.
A doctor has since given the Aussie sailor a health assessment and gave an update on his condition on Monday.
Australian expatriate Tim Shaddock is understood to be safe after being found at sea with his dog Bella after three months of surviving on rainwater and fishing tuna.
Sailor Tim Shaddock (pictured) was rescued off the coast of Mexico with his loyal pup Bella last week after a helicopter with a tuna trawler sighted their catamaran.
Nine reporter Lauren Tomasi told TODAY: ‘I spoke to her doctor this morning who told me she is stable, she is doing very well and has all completely normal vital signs.
Mr. Shaddock managed to avoid any major illness or injury and even escaped sunburn by hiding under the canopy of the catamaran.
He described his time at sea as a ‘hard ordeal’ and said he just needed some rest and food.
Mr Shaddock is still traveling to Mexico where he will receive further treatment.
It was also revealed that the castaway was already eating small meals as part of her raw food diet before her trip.
The sailor lost a staggering amount of weight after being diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer.
She claims that the raw diet helped prevent the growth of cancer cells and saved her life, not eating cooked food for seven years until a 2013 interview with The Raw Food Kitchen.
“I had stomach cancer many years ago and now I am cured,” he told the fishermen on the tuna trawler after being brought on board.
Mr Shaddock claims the diet helped him overcome his shortened life and ‘cure’ cancer and lose a significant amount of weight (pictured, Mr Shaddock in 2013).
The former IT specialist even started a business in 2010, Live Raw, which promoted and sold a raw diet lifestyle before it went out of business in 2020.
Interviewed on Seven’s Sunrise and Nine, Mr Shaddock gained a small amount of fame for his claim that a raw diet cured his cancer.
However, the former Live Raw website claimed that an unknown doctor forced Nine to pull the interview from being broadcast, saying: ‘If this interview is broadcast people will be killed … (if they watch it and take Tim’s advice)’,
Mr. Shaddock stands by his claim that holistic medicine helped cure his cancer despite no scientific evidence to support it.
Mike Tipton, Professor of Human and Applied Physiology at the University of Portsmouth, told 9News Mr Shaddock’s survival at sea was a mixture of ‘luck and skill’.
He said that the sailor had to be lucky for rainfall to replenish water stocks, knowledge of creating shade during the day to prevent heat stroke and strict rationing rules increased his chances of survival.
The professor said having Bella’s companionship on board ‘helped him tremendously’ to avoid isolation.
Bella was seen wagging her tail at the camera crew who filmed the sailor’s catamaran filled with buckets and equipment.
Mr Shaddock immediately drew comparisons during his rescue to Chuck Nolan, played by Tom Hanks in the 2000 film ‘Castaway’.
He claimed that raw food helped prevent the growth of cancer cells and saved his life, not eating cooked food for seven years.