Phil Kerslake has suffered from Lymphoma for much of his life, but he doesn't lose hope.

To defeat cancer once is lucky and twice is miraculous. But to survive this invasive disease six times is nothing short of remarkable. Wellington father Phil Kerslake, 48, can make this astonishing claim. In a further heart-warming chapter in his inspiring survival story, he is using his experiences to give hope to cancer patients around New Zealand.

As he cradles his chortling newborn son Rhys and smiles tenderly at devoted wife Gillian, Phil knows he is luckier than most to be ensconced in a state of family bliss. Phil, a life coach who was a regular guest on Good Morning last year, has suffered five recurrences of lymphoma since his first diagnosis with the disease in 1979.

At the age of 19 he was told he had just 10 years to live. Doctors decided not to treat his lymphoma but to monitor it. Phil got on with life, travelling overseas, until 1987 when the disease had progressed to the point where he had to undergo chemotherapy. It was the beginning of a cycle of regression and recovery - with both Hodgkins and non-Hodgkins forms of lymphoma - that would repeat itself over the next 17 years.

‘I consider myself a pretty resilient person,' he says, which must surely be an understatement. ‘I can handle things quite well.'

Despite the grim prognosis he faced every time lymphoma was detected in his system, Phil says he never felt he would lose his life.

‘There were times amongst that when I'd be having very heavy treatment and I'd lost a lot of weight and I'd think, "Geez, I wonder. I don't think I'm going to die, but hell, it's possible,"' he says.‘I don't think it was denial but intuitively I didn't feel I would die. At times my physical condition would have belied that. Doctors didn't fancy my chances.'

With incredible tenacity, Phil kept coming back from the brink.

‘I was always doing things to raise my spirits and help myself handle what I was going through. I was setting goals and objectives so I had things to look forward to.'

These coping mechanisms are now being passed from Phil onto patients through his widely read book Life, Happiness... and Cancer as well as his pro bono mentoring and public speaking. He recently won one of three international Rebuilding Lives Awards for his work in helping thousands of Kiwi cancer sufferers and survivors rebuild their lives.

Phil has no doubt that the devotion of wife Gillian, 33, who he met in 1994 and married four years later, has been instrumental in propping him up emotionally and physically.

‘She's been a great source of support through the whole encounter,' Phil says fondly. ‘There were times I was so physically sick she had to dress me and coerce me - because I'm so stubborn - to get out of bed and go to hospital instead of toughing it out.'

But stubbornness was not an issue when Phil and Gillian decided to start a family.

Repeated chemotherapy had rendered Phil sterile, so the couple had donor insemination (DI) with an anonymous sperm donor. Rhys Philip William Kerslake was conceived on the couple's fourth course of DI - their last shot at pregnancy.

‘Ten years ago I would have struggled with the idea of having a sperm donor for macho reasons,' Phil admits. ‘But I was present when he was conceived and participated in his delivery, so he's my son.

‘It was incredible, and the most meaningful moment of my life when Rhys came into the world. I co-delivered him, and his first stare was right at me.'

Incredibly, despite being stalked by lymphoma for much of his adult life, Phil does not feel he's been treated harshly by destiny. Instead he feels blessed to have enjoyed a full life. He admits that the prospect of lymphoma returning again - the ‘psychological cancer' - will always haunt him.

You never really completely get over the fear of getting it again,' he says. ‘I self-check a lot and take precautions.'

But this shadow does not hold Phil back, and that's a message he tries to impress on the cancer patients he encounters.

‘I've had a lot of patients say, "Your book was a godsend, it helped me communicate with doctors." Or, "It helped me hold onto hope."‘I push that hope cause strongly. There's no certainty for any of us, but there's hope.'

What is Lymphoma?
Australian songbird Delta Goodrem brought this disease to the fore in 2003 when she was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma at the age of 18. Thankfully the 'Born to Try' singer won her battle with this form of cancer and is now in remission. Yet despite the publicity over her plight, lymphoma remains an enigma to most of us.

The Leukaemia and Blood Foundation of New Zealand describes lymphoma, a blood cancer which occurs in the lymphatic system, as the cancer no one knows.

Their research shows a mere nine per cent of Kiwis surveyed could name lymphoma as a type of cancer, while less than one per cent considered lymphoma as
a possible cause of the most common symptoms. Worryingly, the number of people diagnosed with lymphoma has more than doubled over the past decade, and it is New Zealand's sixth most common cancer. Around 750 Kiwis will be diagnosed with lymphoma this year.

There are more than 35 types of lymphoma. The two most common are Hodgkins and non-Hodgkins.

The most common symptoms, often misdiagnosed as flu or fatigue, include the following:

• Painless swelling in the upper body lymph nodes - neck, collarbone region, armpits or groin.
• Fevers, especially at night.
• Chills or temperature swings.
• Unexplained weight loss.
• Loss of appetite.
• Unusual tiredness or lack of energy.
• Persistent coughing.
• Breathlessness.
• Persistent itch all over the body without an apparent cause or rash.
• Enlarged tonsils.
• Headache.

Most people with these complaints will not have lymphoma. But Dr Peter Browett, medical director at the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation, says anyone experiencing these symptoms for more than two weeks should seek medical advice.

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