Day at mum’s side Golf put on hold as family faces lung cancer surgery
IN late 2013, Jason Day won the World Cup of Golf only days after learning eight relatives, including his grandmother, had perished in a devastating typhoon in the Philippines.
Everyone has a breaking point, though.
“My mum’s been here (the US) for a while and she has lung cancer,” the 29-year-old revealed yesterday at a tearstained press conference after quitting his opening match at the World Match Play tournament in Texas.
“At the start of the year she was diagnosed with 12 months to live … the diagnosis is much better being over here. She’s going into surgery this Friday and it’s really hard to even comprehend being on a golf course.
“My mum says not to let it get to me but it really has.”
Dening is more than just a mother. She’s an inspiration for every woman who’s ever wondered how she was going to survive, let alone raise three children on her own.
Day was 12 when he lost his father to stomach cancer.
Years earlier, Alvyn Day had written a letter to a Philippine marital agency seeking a wife. The woman who arrived in Australia was a nursing grad named Dening.
This was to be no fairy tale. Alvyn abused alcohol and became belligerent when he drank. Despite giving up the bottle in later years, a young Jason would still feel his wrath on the golf course.
“When I dressed (Jason) one weekend, I noticed some bruises on his chest,” Dening has told the New York Times. “And I said ‘ What happened to you?’ and he said ‘Dad’.”
Dening, who had worked night and day to feed and clothe her family, confronted her husband: “Don’t you ever touch our children again and from now on if you want to take him to golf, I’ll be going with you.”
When Alvyn died and Jason started running amok on the streets of Rockhampton, Dening was the one who famously sold the family home and borrowed money from relatives to send him to Kooralbyn International School and its golf academy.
The statistics tell the story: 10 wins on the US tour. The 2015 US PGA Championship. More than $45 million in career earnings and 51 weeks as the world No.1
Having moved to the US as a teen, Day has previously tried to set his mum up in a house near his but she always clung to her independence.
Now, in the worst circumstances, they are together.
“I just need some time away with her to make sure that everything goes well,” Day said. “I’m just hoping for a speedy recovery for her and we can get this behind us and she can live a long life.”