Hickford aims to beat competitors like he beat cancer
In 2017, Josh Hickford was told he had Hodgkinson’s Lymphoma. The same year he was told he’d been chosen for Survivor NZ.
By the time he arrived in Thailand for the competition, he’d been in remission for five months. He said his brush with cancer had put the challenge of Survivor ‘‘in perspective’’.
Hickford, a 28-year-old chartered accountant from New Plymouth, likes a challenge. He saw cancer as one, and Survivor was another.
He’s a keen sportsman who grew up playing rugby and cricket but recently made the transition to endurance multi-sport.
‘‘Anyone that knows me knows that I’m probably too competitive,’’ he says.
‘‘I think it’s just the way I’ve been brought up. Taranaki’s a small region so we always punch above our weight, just like New Zealand does.’’
One example of that competitive spirit: when Hickford was about a month into remission, his work had a ‘‘biggest loser’’ weight loss competition.
Hickford had gained about 7kg while undergoing chemotherapy, and he wanted to shed it. But he also wanted, keenly, to win. Before his first weigh-in, he loaded up on fluids to increase his weight. Afterwards, he started exercising.
Deep into the game, it looked like he might actually win, despite not actually having that much weight to lose in the first place. To tip the scales further in his favour, on the night before the final weighin, he dehydrated himself ‘‘like a boxer’’ with exercise and sauna sessions. It’s fair to say his doctors would not have been pleased, had they known.
In the end, he won – Hickford usually does. His numerous trophies live in the man-cave below his house in New Plymouth – a converted four-car garage that also houses his impressive collection of sports memorabilia.
A true accountant, Hickford has worked out his winning formula for Survivor - though he warns there’s a fair bit of luck involved.
‘‘They say that if they throw a group of people together, X wins,
‘‘Anyone that knows me knows that I’m probably too competitive.’’ Josh Hickford
but if you throw them together again someone else wins. I reckon it’s 70 to 80 per cent social game. Physical you can shoot yourself in the foot, you can be seen as too much of a threat. Strategic, you’ve got to play those clutch moments as close as you can,’’ he says.
He doesn’t plan to tell the other castaways about his cancer battle.
‘‘No one else but me knows about it, it’s just going to be with me through it. I guess if I’m need it as a loyalty thing later on, or if I’m really on the chopping block. But I think I can get through without doing that. I think I’d be perceived as a big threat if they knew about it.
‘‘I don’t want to be defined as the cancer survivor, it’s just a chapter in the book. But it happened so you’ve got to talk about it.’’