Man With Terminal Cancer Moved to I​karia, Greece Blue Zone, Lived 3 Decades

When Stamatis Moraitis was 66 years old, his doctors told him he had just six to nine months left to live.
Moraitis, who'd spent most of his adult life living in suburban New York and Florida, was getting short of breath, unable to finish a day of work like he used to. It's terminal lung cancer, his American doctors all said.

So, the Greek father of three decided to move back to his homeland, on the isolated Mediterranean island of Ikaria, with his wife Elpiniki. He didn't want his family to be burdened with the thousands of dollars he knew an American funeral would cost. Let me be buried beside my family, by the sea, and where it'll only cost my relatives a few hundred dollars, he thought.

But back on Ikaria, the Greek island parked halfway between Athens and Turkey, something remarkable happened. Moraitis didn't know it at the time, but he was returning to a unique, isolated spot, an island where people routinely live past 100. He had entered a Blue Zone.