When Stamatis Moraitis was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1976, he was told he had less than a year to live. But fast forward 10 years and the pensioner was still going strong so he returned to the doctors to share the three secrets of his survival. However, when the pensioner went back, he was sad to discover that he'd outlived them all.
After his terminal diagnosis, Stamatis had decided to move back to his home island of Ikaria in Greece to live out his final days and avoid America's high funeral costs. He refused chemotherapy and medication in favour of nature and his own good old-fashioned brew. He tended to his garden and vineyard and made homemade wine.
He put his longevity down to good food, good wine and good company on the lush island, which is one of the world's renowned "Blue Zones" where inhabitants commonly live longer than anywhere else in the world. Stamatis went on to live for more than 40 years after his diagnosis and passed away peacefully in 2013 at the age of 102. A post on X (formerly Twitter) by Visionary Void earlier this week said: "Lesser-known is the fact that Moraitis attributed his extended life to a conscious choice—to return to his homeland, the Greek island of Ikaria.
..Living in such an environment undoubtedly played a significant role in Moraitis's impressive lifespan.
"But it wasn't just the location that contributed to his extraordinary journey. "Moraitis adopted a traditional Mediterranean diet, rich in locally sourced whole foods like fres.
