Remarkable photos show the transformation of an Australian castaway who was found at sea with his dog after surviving off rain water and tuna for three months.
Tim Shaddock was rescued off the coast of Mexico alongside his dog Bella after after a helicopter accompanying a tuna trawler spotted their catamaran last week.
Although being found healthy and in good spirits, footage of Mr Shaddock’s rescue showed the Sydney man appearing skinny and dishevelled having consisted on a bare-minimum diet for months.
Now extraordinary images have emerged of Mr Shaddock living a very different life before he disappeared off the coast of Mexico.
The most recent photo shows Mr Shaddock with a neatly manicured beard appearing the picture of health – his appearance was a world away from the wiry beard and soiled clothes he was wearing when he was rescued.
Tim Shaddock and his dog Bella (both pictured) were saved off the coast of Mexico after being stranded at sea for two months, surviving on a diet of just raw fish and rainwater
His unkempt appearance after being rescued by a tuna trawler immediately drew comparisons to Chuck Nolan, played by Tom Hanks, in the movie Castaway
Another photo of the sailor as a much younger man shows a heavyset Mr Shaddock wearing an ironed shirt with his hair neatly maintained and his face clean-shaven.
Another photo showed a slightly older Mr Shaddock beaming with a wide grin on his face and appearing leaner after adopting a raw food diet.
Mr Shaddock and his dog Bella had departed from La Pez, along the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico, in April on an over 6,000km solo voyage across the Pacific Ocean to French Polynesia three months ago.
However, just two weeks into his voyage a storm destroyed electronics on his boat, leaving the pair without communication to the outside world or a way to navigate the open ocean.
The sailor was lucky to have brought fishing and survival equipment along for the trip, which provided both him and Bella enough of an opportunity to survive the ordeal.
Mike Tipton, Professor of Human and Applied Physiology at the University of Portsmouth, told 9News Mr Shaddock’s survival was a mix of ‘luck and skill’.
He said that while the sailor had to be lucky for rainfall to refill stocks of water, his knowledge to create shade during the day to stave off heat stroke and strict rationing rules increased his chances of survival.
The professor said that having companionship on board with Bella would have ‘helped him a tremendous amount’ to stave off isolation.
Bella was seen wagging her tail at the camera crew who filmed the sailor’s catamaran littered with buckets and equipment.
However, previous images of Mr Shaddock from when he worked as an IT expert in the 1990s show a drastic change in his appearance (pictured, Mr Shaddock)
He weighed as much as 140kg before he was diagnosed with terminal stage four bowel cancer and converted to a ‘fully raw’ diet as a last ditch effort to survive the diagnosis
Mr Shaddock’s unkempt appearance upon his rescue immediately drew comparison to Chuck Nolan, played by Tom Hanks, in the 2000 film ‘Castaway’.
However, it isn’t the only body transformation Mr Shaddock has undergone, having dropped a large amount of weight after a stage four bowel cancer diagnosis.
The Sydney man was an IT expert in the 1990s and weighed as much as 120kg before receiving his diagnosis, a far cry from his physique today.
He claims the raw diet helped curb the growth of cancer cells and saved his life, having not eaten a cooked meal for seven years up until an interview with The Raw Food Kitchen in 2013.
‘My stomach had cancer many years ago, and I’m healed of that now,’ he told fishermen on the tuna trawler after being brought aboard.
Mr Shaddock claims the diet helped outlive his shortened life expectancy and be ‘healed’ from the cancer and dropping considerable amounts of weight (pictured, Mr Shaddock in 2013)
He would then move on from his job as an IT expert to open Live Raw in 2010, a business that promoted and sold products related to a raw diet that could kill cancer cells
The former IT expert had even started a business in 2010, Live Raw, that promoted and sold the lifestyle of a raw diet before going defunct in 2020.
Mr Shaddock received small amounts of fame for his claims that a raw diet cured his cancer, being interviewed on Seven’s Sunrise and by Nine.
However, the former Live Raw website claims an unknown doctor had forced Nine into pulling the interview from going to air, saying: ‘If this interview goes to air, people will be killed … (if they watch it and take Tim’s advice)’,
Mr Shaddock has stood by his claims holistic medicine helped him cure his cancer despite no scientific evidence supporting it.
A healthy diet can reduce the risk of developing cancer but cannot cure the disease.
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