Episode 124 - ian westmoreland OAM
124. Ian Westmoreland OAM | Stage 4 Cancer, Kintsugi Heroes, and the Gratitude That Saved His Life
What do you do when a lifetime of success suddenly means nothing?
Ian Westmoreland OAM spent 42 years as a top-tier IT project manager for some of Australia's largest corporations. By every conventional measure, he had made it. A successful career. A beautiful family. A life built on discipline, dedication, and decades of hard work.
Then, at fifty-nine and a half, he walked away from all of it.
Not because it had failed him. But because something inside him knew there was more to give. More connection to build. More purpose to live out. That decision led Ian to found two not-for-profits, Mentoring Men and Kintsugi Heroes, both built on a belief that community, shared stories, and genuine human connection are the most powerful forces we have.
Then cancer arrived.
In 2022, Ian was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma. A massive sun-related cancer linked to decades of competitive tennis as a World Masters Champion. Over twenty tumours. A brutal treatment journey that stripped him of his physical capability and forced him to confront his own mortality in ways most of us will never have to face. A man who had built his life around movement and sport suddenly needed a walker to get around.
And through every single moment of it, Ian chose gratitude.
Not the kind of gratitude you feel when life is easy. The kind you choose when everything is falling apart. The kind that becomes your anchor when the world gives you every reason to sink. Ian shifted his focus from everything that had been taken to everything that remained. His relationships. His family. His purpose. His community. And that shift changed everything.
Just when the hardest part seemed to be behind him, 2025 brought eight brain tumours. The treatment was as confronting as anything he had faced before. Days when getting to the bathroom twenty times was the reality. Days when walking across a room felt like climbing a mountain. But Ian rebuilt. Ninety percent of his mobility returned. He got back to doing pull ups. And he came out the other side with a clarity that no corporate career or title could ever have given him.
That the real measure of a life is not what you accumulate. It is who you love, who you show up for, and how willing you are to be vulnerable enough to let others in.
Ian named his charity Kintsugi Heroes after the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. The philosophy is simple and profound. What breaks us does not diminish us. It reshapes us into something stronger, more valuable, and more beautiful than before. Over eighty people have now shared their stories through Kintsugi Heroes, and Ian's vision of bringing communities back together through the power of lived experience is only just beginning.
This is one of the most honest, raw, and inspiring conversations to land on Leading Our Own Way. Ian Westmoreland is living proof that adversity is not the end of your story.
It is the making of it.
This is what leading your own way looks like. Raw. Real. Unfiltered.
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