‘There’s no precedent’: Builder told he'd be dead by Christmas. Two years on, there’s no trace of his cancer

Tuesday, 30 June 2026

Mike Prujean was told he’d likely be dead by Christmas 2024 because of melanoma that had reached his brain, but is still alive.

Scans have currently not found any evidence of cancer, but Prujean has suffered serious side-effects from his treatment, including vision loss.

Nonetheless, he wants to get back on the road and complete more adventures, something he credits with keeping him alive.

Mike Prujean was given months to live when told he had melanoma throughout his brain and body in May 2024, but has defied the odds and is looking ahead to another epic adventure. Nicholas Jones reports.

A builder who was told he’d likely be dead by Christmas 2024 because of melanoma that had reached his brain is still alive - and regular scans have not found any trace of the cancer.

“What they’re calling me is a long-term survivor,” says Mike Prujean, 43. “There’s no precedent for what I’m going through.”

Stuff first reported on Prujean’s story last year. He’d had a mole excised in 2011, and testing of the tissue had confirmed it was cancerous.

However, he says his medical centre never communicated the results - an oversight detailed by his hospital specialists when they later lodged a successful treatment injury claim with ACC.

(A manager at the medical centre told Stuff they couldn’t discuss the case for privacy reasons, but had reviewed their recall and follow-up systems, and were “ confident that our processes ensure timely review of clinically significant results, and appropriate ongoing care”.)

Prujean only found out about the melanoma - a dangerous skin cancer that can spread rapidly to other organs - in 2021, when he sought help for a painful lump around his ribcage.

The cancer was cut out from around his chest, but in May 2024 scans revealed he was riddled with it - in his liver, lungs, stomach, hips and brain. An oncologist told him to get his affairs in order, he says, as “you won’t see Christmas”.

He began immunotherapy and targeted brain radiation, and with support from his wife Kady, completed an epic cycling tour, criss-crossing New Zealand to farewell friends.

Prujean kept his medical team in the dark about his trip (doctors advised against physical exertion as tumours made his hips at risk of fracture), until scans showed his cancer was in retreat.

After the August 2024 to January 2025 trip he kept up the adventuring and exercise, including a trip down the Whanganui River with friends, and 10 days climbing around Aoraki/Mount Cook.

Prujean has had other melanoma and cancer patients and their families contact him for advice.

When he was told he was stage 4, he asked his medical team if taking on a strict diet was worth it, but says they told him to enjoy himself, given his dire prognosis.

Apart from “an initial couple of weeks where I started eating honey and overnight porridge”, he then turned to “rum and coke and KFC chicken”, because the fast food was all he could tolerate because of new stomach issues, and a painful, sensitive mouth - both treatment side-effects.

All Prujean and Kady can credit beyond the medical treatment itself is his positive, don’t-look-back attitude, and his refusal to sit around at home.

To spread that message of hope Prujean planned to document on social media another epic undertaking - trekking the 3000km Te Araroa trail, which spans the length of NZ.

He was all packed, but things fell apart in the lead-up to last Christmas.

“I became very confused. We knew something was wrong, we just didn’t know what.”

He had a scan on December 28 2025, and says early in the New Year he was called by Middlemore Hospital with dire news - it appeared his cancer was back, and in his brain.

Five awful days later he and Kady were told that, in fact, the spots visible in the scan were caused by radiation necrosis, which occurs when radiation treatment causes a build-up of dead tissue, leading to swelling.

That has put pressure on Prujean’s optic nerves, eroding most of his vision - he can only see out of the lower quadrant of his right eye, which creates huge strain and fatigue.

Prujean was an avid reader, but now has to examine each letter and move on to the next. His brain hasn’t coped with that change, he says, meaning he reads letters that aren’t actually on the page, or in a text message.

High-powered steroids to reduce his brain swelling cause immense hunger, and mean he cannot sleep at night. His balance has deteriorated, and he cannot drive or be left alone.

“You feel like you’re sort of underwater, without any room to think. I fall over. I walk into everything. I knock over drinks daily. I can’t live a normal life.

“I get frustrated and upset, not being able to do really simple things. It’s like reverting back to being a toddler - you can’t look after yourself.

“This has been harder than the cancers. [With those] there was always something to work towards, but with what I’m going through now with my brain, there’s nothing anyone can do.”

Through it all, he is grateful for the support of Kady, who has kept up work as a hairdresser to help them scrape by, amidst an ongoing dispute with ACC over his entitlement.

“I get reminded every day about how good she is … she's always got my back.”

Prujean has two more rounds of another treatment, a biologic medicine, to treat his brain swelling. When those are done, he’s desperate for more adventure - likely Te Araroa, and then cycling from Melbourne to Harvey Bay, Queensland.

“I've got enough [vision]. I'll rig up one of those little orange lights for my bike or helmet … I need to keep going. For my mental health, I need to achieve something.”