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'There’s meaning in every moment': Kiwi runner on life after conquering cancer
Jaxin Daniels • August 21st, 2025 3:39 pm
Josh Komen (bottom right) and team New Zealand at the World Transplant Games in Germany | Photo: New Zealand Transplant Games Association
After being diagnosed with leukaemia over a decade ago, not once but twice, Josh Komen is still out smashing goals and living his dreams.
The once Commonwealth Games-destined runner is now in Germany competing for New Zealand in the World Transplant Games, something he is still trying to fathom.
“It’s just so hard to put into words,” he told Sport Nation’s Scotty and Izzy.
“I literally thought my dream was dead and I was dying, and here it comes back in a completely different light, the World Transplant Games.
“I always had a dream to represent New Zealand on the track and field. When you get that diagnosis, and it goes on for 10 years, and you don’t think you get yourself back on your feet.
“Then this opportunity beckons, and not only that, but to compete in the city where your donor donated you stem cells.
“To be here, to represent this beloved country, it’s just a true, utmost privilege.”
Komen was on the verge of representing New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow until he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, a serious blood cancer, that abruptly halted his athletic aspirations.
Despite his world being tipped upside down, Komen is finding the positives in his new perspective on life and is savouring the unique and unifying nature of the Transplant Games.
“I was very competitive and fixated on a specific goal, but now my awareness has grown,” Komen said.
“It’s now just the fact I can move my body, that I can get out of bed, that I can walk, and now I can run a bit. It’s just that simple practice of getting out and partaking.
“There is a competitive edge to it but win or lose in these games it’s just that appreciation. We’re still here, we’re still breathing, we’re still living, we’ve got life in front of us."
“Even though we are competing against each other, we are living together with one another because we’re all connected.
“Someone donated something from themselves to give us a second chance. These people have a deep gratitude for life and what’s in front of them. It’s just a deep appreciation for that.”
Josh Komen at the World Transplant Games | Photo: Sport Canterbury - West Coast
Hardened by his own experience, Komen wants to inspire people to keep trying.
“There’s meaning in every moment,” Komen said. “Life’s going to question us and we have the ability to find our own answer.
“Open up your awareness, choose a positive attitude and find something meaningful within that moment. That’s what I try to do.
“Everyone’s got their own answer to the question life’s going to give them, and there will be an answer if they continue to try and find it.”
Although the main goal is just participating with one another, Komen does admit there is some jesting going around.
“We’ve got the Aussies here, so there’s lots of banter, " Komen joked.
“The funny thing is, you’ll get disqualified if you pass a drug test, everyone’s on drugs here.
“If you get a clean test, you’re out, you’re gone.
“Everyone’s got something to keep them going. There’s a lot of banter, it’s good.”
Co-host Scotty Stevenson had the pleasure of meeting ‘Joshy’ in Melbourne, where their friendship started.
Since then, Komen has been someone Stevenson has admired and confided in when things got tough in his own life.
“You were one of the first people I wanted to come and see and for her to meet,” Stevenson mentioned, after his wife was diagnosed with brain cancer.
“Life is for living, and we have these challenges but it doesn’t have to put you in a box.
“I remember your kindness, your ability to stay strong after it reached rock bottom.”
Komen attributed his strength to finding time to express his emotions rather than trying to ‘tough it out’.
“The fortitude to create that space to cry, it’s part of being strong. That space to just express your emotions, that’s being strong,” Komen said.
“I never used to be able to do that, but I found that.
“It’s that space to share what’s going on, and hopefully someone can just listen, that’s being strong.
“I thought being strong was putting your teeth down and just grinding it out, but strength for me now is opening up and expressing my emotions when I need to and in a safe space with people I trust.”
Listen to the full interview below:
