When a book has a foreword by a celebrity cancer 'survivor', the reader can be assured that the author is embarking on a narrative journey that will take him through the travails of a disease that has only left a trail of agony and misery for the sufferer.

"The most difficult ordeal a person endures is pain without explanation!"

As an individual with his own qualms about the myriad pains that were racking his body, Nidhin Valsan, the author of the book, has managed to succinctly portray the feelings of a person in the abysmal depths of despair.

Be it the unpleasant and prolonged experience of seeking the right diagnosis and coming to terms with it, or the gruelling chemotherapy sessions amid fleeting thoughts of failure, the readers will easily relate to the emotional conflicts within the writer, which are more traumatising than the illness itself.

The book "Cancer Man to Ironman" is a personal memoir recounting a police officer's valiant efforts at arresting an illness that threatened to debilitate and destroy him.

Nidhin Valsan, an IPS officer with a remarkable stint in Goa professionally, has ensured that the book is a fast-paced narrative and gives a clear and lucid account of his ordeal.

Readers are given a ringside seat on the extensive tests that established Nidhin Valsan's diagnosis of 'Stage-4 non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma' - a cancer that attacks the body's immune system - and the exhaustive treatment that he had to undergo in the hospital. A 'double tryst' with the COVID-19 pandemic during the recovery phase added to his woes.

For someone trained to be physically fit and mentally resilient as a police officer, this period was a severe test of his inner strength. If the 'metastasising devil' had sown seeds of doubt in his nagging mind about his chances of recovery and the possibilities of a relapse, the never-say-die attitude quite evident in the uniformed gentry pulled him out of the wretched condition to give him a new ray of hope.

It is the rehabilitation stage where we catch glimpses of the steely resolve and fierce determination that gave Nidhin a chance to rediscover himself all over again. He speaks of setting his sights on an audacious goal, his resolve not just to survive but to thrive! Determined to complete the Ironman Triathlon, one of the most gruelling endurance events in the world, he set out to do the impossible – conquering fear.

Quite a few pages towards the end are devoted to his rigorous training, his fitness regimen, and the therapy sessions designed to make him mentally stronger for the competition. With enough doses of suspense and thrill, the event proper, 'The Ironman 70.3 Goa', has been described so well by the author that for the entire duration, it is as if the reader is witnessing the race live.

Truly, the book is a vividly inspirational memoir chronicling a police officer's journey from battling cancer to conquering one of the world's toughest races. The Arabic tagline at the end, 'I don't give up easily,' aptly sums up the essence of the narrative. A must-read book by any standards!