New Zealand sport’s cancer survivors
Prostate cancer survivor Wayne Smith is the latest in a line of New Zealand sporting figures who have tackled and beaten cancer.
The deadly disease has claimed the lives of some of our top sportspeople, including All Blacks great Colin Meads and former All Whites captain Steve Sumner in 2017, while cricket great Martin Crowe lost his four-year fight with lymphoma in 2016.
Former Olympic Games silver medallist Dick Quax revealed he has been battling cancer for four years.
The 70-year-old said he had had head and neck cancer, which had spread to his lungs and brain, though those lesions had shrunk.
‘‘It’s tough but I’m not dying from cancer, I’m living with cancer,’’ he said.
‘‘I’ve had surgery, quite a bit of radiation, I’ve had chemotherapy, I’ve gone through treatment with Keytruda, so I’ve pretty much run the gamut of treatments.’’
Quax, the 5000m track silver medallist at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, still continues his work as an Auckland city councillor.
Sport has also produced other high-profile cancer survivors, including three of Wayne Smith’s fellow former All Blacks.
Aaron Cruden - who turns 29 today - became an ambassador for Testicular Cancer NZ (TCNZ) after overcoming the disease as a 19-year-old.
Cruden – now playing for French club Montpellier – said in a video on TCNZ’s website that he was ‘‘really shocked and couldn’t believe it’’ when he was first diagnosed just after being named in the Manawatu senior rugby side.
He had a testicle removed and had three months of intensive chemotherapy, but has been in remission since 2008.
Two years later, Cruden made his All Blacks debut at the age of 21, in 2010.
He went on to help lead the Chiefs to two Super Rugby titles and earned 47 All Blacks caps before moving to France in 2017.
Former All Blacks fullback Greg Cooper – now coaching French Top 14 club Stade Francais – was diagnosed with bone cancer as a 15-year-old in Hawke’s Bay.
Cooper, now 52, had two years of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, before being cleared to return to sport.
Like Cruden, he made his test debut as a 21-year-old when the All Blacks played France in Christchurch in 1986.
Cooper finished with seven test caps and later coached the Blues and the Highlanders in Super Rugby.
Sir Brian Lochore, who captained the All Blacks between 1966 and 1970 and coached New Zealand to the inaugrual Rugby World Cup title in 1987, revealed to Newsroom last April that he had been treated for melanoma and prostate cancer.
Tony Marsh, a former Counties and Crusaders midfield back, was successfully treated for testicular cancer in 2003 while playing in France.
Marsh earned 21 test caps for France – before and after his cancer treatment.
The 45-year-old has competed in Ironman events and is now based in Auckland, working as a personal trainer and elite athlete coach.
Like Cruden, he is an ambassador for Testicular Cancer NZ.
Former Silver Ferns netballer Marg Foster was treated for breast cancer in 2006 while coaching the Canterbury Flames.
It later spread to her ovaries, she told the Otago Daily Times in 2009, but treatment proved successful and Foster later wrote about her experience in her book, Silver Linings.
Foster joined the Southern Steel coaching team after her recovery and is now an ambassador for Breast Cancer New Zealand.
Jacob Phillips competed for New Zealand at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games just 11 months after being treated for blood cancer.
The then 19-year-old track sprinter was diagnosed with stage two Hodgkins lymphoma in February 2015 while preparing for the International Paralympic Committee world championships.
The tumours in his neck receded with treatment and, after eight rounds of chemotherapy and 15 bouts of radiation, he was cleared in August 2015.
For another inspiring story, look across the Tasman to Melbourne where AFL star Jarryd Roughead recovered from cancer to captain Hawthorn in the 2017 premiership.
Roughead had a melanoma removed from his lip in 2015, but found out the following May it had spread to his lungs.
The four-time premiership winner went through some gruelling treatment before being cleared in December 2016 and being appointed club captain a month later.
‘‘I thought footy was everything up until what happened,’’ Roughead told the Melbourne Age last January.
‘‘Now that I have gone through what I have, you understand that footy is only going to be 15, 16 years of my life in terms of playing,’’ he said in a reflective moment.
‘‘I want to potentially live to be a dad or grandad. That’s one of the things the [doctor] said when I got the all clear, that he wants to see me become a grandad. That means more than just 15 years of footy...’’