A banker was dubbed ‘the man who refuses to die’ by hospital workers after surviving four near-death experiences during his cancer battle.
Peter Källberg suffered several cardiac arrests and underwent 13 surgeries during his seven-year fight.
The 60-year-old has now been given the all-clear.
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Peter, who comes from Gävle in Sweden, said: “My slogan became ‘never give the hell up’, and I gained a reputation in hospitals.
“Workers said ‘that’s the man who refuses to die’.”
Peter, who worked in banking for many years, was diagnosed with cancer seven years ago.
He also told Need To Know: “It was at the end of 2018 when I started going to the bathroom very frequently, and I sought medical help.
“I went to a health clinic, but they found nothing wrong with me.
“After several months of weight loss and blood in my stools, my wife kept insisting that we had to go to hospital.
“As they examined me and inserted a camera, the room went quiet.
“The doctors looked at each other, then more staff came in.
“‘You have cancer, we see a large tumour’.
“I looked into my wife’s eyes – her face twisted and tears came.
“I had lived a completely normal life with my wife and child. We also had two dogs.
“I had more or less never been sick in my life, and I loved most things – good food, sports, and I played golf, among other things.”
The couple went home in shock.
They went back to the hospital after Peter’s test results came back.
“We sat across from the doctor,” he remembered. “She said ‘it’s bad, really bad, you have colon cancer and it has spread to the lymph nodes’.”
She added: “Would you like to donate your organs?”
Peter agreed and started treatment for his grim diagnosis.
“The treatments that followed were horrific,” he said.
“They wanted to see if extremely aggressive treatment could shrink the tumours.
“I underwent radiation therapy. Instead of 25 sessions, I had 5 with the same total dose.
“I was shaking; the first one went fine, but then it just got worse.
“Chemotherapy continued as well.”
He added: “I was one of six men who signed up for this research programme.
“Sadly, the other five passed away during treatment.”
It proved successful at first, but the cancer returned several years later.
Peter said: “After a few years, it came back, it refused to give up – and so did I.
“I refuse to surrender.
“I also told my friends that I had cancer, and the news spread quickly.
“People started following me, among other places on Facebook, where I posted updates on what was happening.
“The surgeries continued, but they couldn’t stop the bleeding.
“One day, a priest came to talk to me about life and I didn’t understand why.
“Later, I found out that my closest family had been told I probably had a week left to live.
“I went from 16 stone (102kg) down to 10.7 stone (68kg).”
“But I recovered – and then the cancer came back again.
“I was treated aggressively with chemotherapy.
“I remember lying in bed at home, thin, without hair, with a machine pumping chemotherapy into me.
“I called out to my wife Lotta ‘the sun is shining outside, today will be a beautiful day’.
“During one chemotherapy session, I suddenly felt myself losing my speech.
“I only saw light and people screaming.
“I realised they were injecting me in the stomach, and then I fell asleep – my heart couldn’t take it anymore.”
He added: “I had two other heart attacks in a short time, and then it was decided that chemotherapy could not continue.”
In 2022, the doctors found the main tumour in Peter’s pelvis.
“I was to be operated on in a specialized unit,” he said. “You could say it was the very last option.
“The surgeries were carried out in Stockholm, I got myself into good physical shape with endless walks.
“The operation was estimated to take 24 hours. They would saw off my coccyx, remove the rectum, and enter from behind to reach the tumour.
“I bled enormously during surgery, and my heart had to work so hard that after 17 hours, the doctors decided they had to pause.
“They stitched me up and discussed what to do.
“They said among themselves ‘he’s a real fighter, we have to continue’.
“So they did, the total surgery time was 23.5 hours.”
After six days, Peter’s condition improved and he was transferred to the rehabilitation ward.
He said: “Deep down, I never accepted the idea of death – even though I sat with a priest and a lawyer and said goodbye to my daughter and closest family before the major surgeries.”
Unfortunately, Peter suffered two major setbacks that required additional surgeries in 2023 and 2024.
He explained: “They removed my bladder, spleen, and prostate.
“I also had surgery on one lung, my liver, and my chest.
“I now have double stomas on my stomach.”
After “13 surgeries and seven years of hell”, Peter was declared cancer-free in December 2025
“I now have many dreams in life,” he said, “because life itself is the greatest thing.
“In hospital, I dreamed of driving a car again and swimming in the sea.
“We also decided to travel to Thailand if I got well – and we did.
“I was like a child, nervous and excited to swim again after seven years.”
He added: “Live in the present, stop constantly thinking about the future.
“Call an old friend, take the trip you’ve been planning for ages, and don’t postpone anything.”
