When Abhishek Malik spotted a small sore on his tongue, cancer was the furthest thing from his mind.
The healthy 22-year-old uni student from Sydney thought he must have simply bitten himself. His doctor also wasn’t too concerned.
“It was a tiny two-millimetre bite mark,” Mr Malik told news.com.au.
“I went to the GP and he said it’s just an ulcer put this ointment on it.”
Thinking nothing much of it, he Googled information about similar marks. The first link to pop up was an online article.
“It was about some British man who had been diagnosed with cancer,” he explained.
But Mr Malik dismissed it.
“When you Google anything it says you have cancer and I thought there’s no way I can have that, I have no family history or anything.”
Weeks later, in April 2016, after getting a second opinion and a biopsy, he was given the news that stumped doctors.
The 22-year-old had an aggressive tumour on his tongue.
Tongue cancer is more commonly found among older people, aged 40 and above, and is most often caused by heavy smoking and drinking.
“I was kind of in shock and I didn’t really process it,” he shared.
While trying to come to terms with the news, his first thought was of an upcoming holiday he had booked in with his friends.
“I literally asked the doctor, ‘will I be able to go to Europe in June?’ and he said ‘maybe just put that on hold’.”
Knowing he was not “a smoker or an alcoholic” he tried to press for a reason behind the cancer diagnosis.
“But I was basically just told it was bad luck,” he explained.
The good news was that doctors had caught the cancer in its early stages.
Two months later, Mr Malik underwent a major surgery to have the tumour removed.
During the surgery, surgeons had to take out a third of Mr Malik’s tongue and replace it with tissue from his hip.
As a result, he was left with a unique two-toned tongue – half pink and half brown.
Surgeons also cleared the lymph nodes in his neck, leaving him with a scar on both his neck and hip.
“There’s no sensation on the right side of the tongue, the left side works like normal,” he explained.
After surgery, Mr Malik underwent six gruelling weeks of radiotherapy, which saw him temporarily lose his taste, appetite and a bunch of his hair.
It also left him with alterations on his body.
“It literally burns in your body so my whole face was sort of patchy and inside my mouth has these ulcerations and scars,” he said.
“There was one period right after week six, I remember the sensation of my tongue touching my teeth … and it felt like a 15 (out of 10 on the pain scale).”
Mentally, the treatment also took a toll.
“It was definitely really hard,” he said.
“I kind of felt like one of those situations in the family where everyone felt like they had to be strong for the other person.”
During this time, Mr Malik also had to be fitted with a feeding tube connected to his stomach.
“I hated that because it sort of made me feel sicker than I was. I suddenly felt like a debilitated sort of hospital patient who couldn’t even eat food,” he said.
It was during his treatment – when he was watching a lot of Friends and the Discovery Channel – that he decided he was going to challenge himself when he recovered.
“I wrote a list of things and I thought once I’m better let’s try and tick these goals off.”
First on the list was to Swim the English Channel, the body of water that separates the United Kingdom from France. Next was to run the Marathon Des Sables ultra-marathon in the Sahara desert.
“I just thought I’ve always looked up to people who do this sort of stuff. For example, David Walliams, one of (the former) Britain’s Got Talent judges, who swam the Channel or people like Bear Grylls who’s climbed Everest,” he said.
“I was also watching a lot of documentaries on marathons … and I thought instead of looking up to those people, let’s try and hit those goals yourself.”
But as someone who wasn’t a runner or swimmer, people thought he was being “naive” at first.
“When you haven’t done any adventure scene before, it’s kind of hard to tell everyone that you’re going to do all that stuff,” he said.
“Telling people that I was going to swim the Channel a year out from learning how to swim in the ocean, people thought I was stupid.”
But he didn’t let them stop him.
In 2019, Mr Malik successfully swan the 33km across the English Channel, raising over $22,000 for the Australian not-for-profit cancer foundation, Canteen.
Now he’s set to tackle his second goal, conquering the challenging 252km Marathon Des Sables.
Dubbed the “toughest footrace on Earth”, the marathon will see Mr Malik run 40-50 km per day, over six days, in 50-degree temperatures through the Sahara Desert.
During the race, which kicks off on April 12, the now 30-year-old will have to carry all his food, toiletry essentials and camping gear in a backpack while running and sleeping in the world’s largest desert.
“I’ve heard stories of people finding scorpions under their sleeping mats and I’ve heard people getting stuck in sand storms, so I just hope it’s really great weather,” he joked.
Even before the challenging race, he’s been putting in the hard yards, running 10 hours and attending the gym five hours each week to train.
“It’s basically a part-time job like I’m working out probably 16 hours a week,” he said.
But he knows it will all be worth it.
Like he did with the English Channel swim, Mr Malik is hoping to raise thousands of dollars for Canteen Australia.
“The work they do is super important. When I was going through treatment, they were sending out surveys and checking in to make sure you’re okay,” he said.
“All the young people at Canteen whether they’ve had cancer themselves, or they’ve had a family member go through it … they understand. And even though I’ve got really great supportive of friends, because thankfully no one had been through cancer before, they didn’t really get it.
“So it makes a big difference.”
Even with the race still days away, he’s already has set his eyes on the next big challenge.
“I’ve already made up my mind of climbing up to the top of Mount Everest,” he shared, adding he’s set the goal for 2026.
And it seems nothing will stop him.
Mr Malik said doctors told him he’s now “cured”, with the cancer found to have not spread to any other parts of his body.
Doctors had warned if the cancer was to return, it would more likely do so in the first two years.
But nearly seven years on, Mr Malik remains healthy and no longer needs to attend regular check-ups every six months.
As he gears up for the race, the 30-year-old encourages other Aussies battling cancer or those looking to try new challenges to simply “give it a go”.
“It’s doesn’t have to be swimming the Channel or running a marathon or climbing a mountain, it’s about doing what you really want to do,” he said.
“If you want to do something, you have to try it, you have to give it a shot. And even if you fail, you’re three steps ahead of someone who is still dreaming about it.”
Those wanting to donate and help Mr Malik reach his $10,000 goal can do so here. You can also follow his journey on social media @abhiswims