"A walking miracle." This was how Gary Valenciano described himself following his bouts with open heart surgery and kidney cancer.
In an interview with Karen Davila, the singer opened up about his journey in overcoming his medical challenges in the past.
In 2018, Gary had an open-heart surgery and was later diagnosed with kidney cancer. He also has diabetes which is a lifelong condition.
When asked if there was a time when he thought that he was facing the end of his life, he replied: "No. I never thought this is it, but I told myself if this is it. I think I've left behind enough to continue the legacy. My music will continue to plant seed on good soil and that's okay na with me."
He further highlighted that at that time, he knew that he already lived a good life. "I can't complain eh. I've been given an awesome wife and then I have great children who are now spreading their wings and flying so what else pa? But siyempre there was that fear of could this be it? But I didn't think that this is probably the moment I'm going to die, no."
The singer was also asked if there was a time he thought he would no longer be the same as a performer. He confessed that it was after the open-heart surgery. "For a while. You know, just to put up my hand... it kinda hurts parang magbubukas ['yung chest]," he recounted.
Gary further recalled: "But the one that got me which made me feel I'm not going to be the same again, which was a lie, was when I was down, and it was the first time I was going to go on the bike. I ride bikes all the time and I didn't have the strength."
The next day, it slowly got better for Gary and he was able to use the stationary bike in the succeeding days. However, two weeks later, his doctors found out that he had cancer in his kidney.
Gary admitted that at that point, he began questioning God but later on realized that the heart surgery had a big purpose.
"I did question na what is this all for, wasn't this enough? Isn't the diabetes enough? What is this? But when I looked at the bigger picture here, if I didn't have the bypass, they would have not diagnosed the kidney with cancer because there were no symptoms."
He went on: "I had symptoms [in my chest area] but I did not any symptoms [in my kidney area]. Even when I had operation, the reason they did a CT scan because there was another problem that occurred which was they called pleural effusions, wherein I ended up having fluids on my left lung," he recounted.
When he underwent another CT scan, it was revealed that he had cancer in the kidney.
Gary recalled that the hardest part of it was telling his family about the news. "I shed tears when I had to tell my son Paulo. That was kinda difficult to say because I know the family were all shook up when they found out that I was going to have a bypass and I come to them 2 weeks later with [them thinking] that I was healing and tell them I have cancer. And [the cancer] was big 4cm x 6cm. It is as big as a child's fist," he shared.
In 2018, the singer's doctors successfully eliminated his cancer cells through chemotherapy and radiation, and he has remained cancer-free ever since then.
"When God restores, He's not going to bring you back to the former, He always brings you back higher than where you were before. I experienced that time and time again, so I say that with confidence," he said about his recovery.