THE GREAT SURVIVOR
Fighting for his life, he took team meetings from his hospital bed
Gary Johnson bursts through the doors at Cheltenham Town with a blue enamel badge fixed to the centre of his training top.
he is keen to promote st raphael’s hospice in surrey where his brother died last week after suffering with cancer.
steve Johnson was a popular figure on the circuit after years coaching and scouting in non-league.
he was only 60 years old. Gary is two years older, and, not for the first time, emotions are swirling ahead of a new season.
‘I want to wear this for him,’ says Johnson.
Little more than a year ago, he was fighting for his own life, having been struck by GuillainBarre syndrome soon after a triple heart bypass operation.
It is the same illness thought to afflict oscar Tabarez, the manager of Uruguay, who walked with the aid of a cane at the World Cup in russia.
‘The immune system attacks the nervous system,’ says Johnson. ‘ The first we knew about it was when I fell down the stairs. I had nothing in my legs. I couldn’t get up from the toilet. I could feel my legs weren’t with me.
‘It can get into your chest — and because my chest was weak it was more dangerous than I realised. other people knew more than I did.’
his wife Caron and son Lee, the manager of Bristol City, were told he had 36 hours to beat it before it reached his vital organs but they spared him this information.
Cheltenham were in a relegation scrap and Johnson was still taking team meetings via skype from his hospital bed and in close contact with his loyal coaches.
‘I’ve always been lucky to find good staff,’ he says.
Later, he called players to his home in Portishead to analyse tapes. Cheltenham stayed up and improved last season with the boss back to full fitness.
‘They found a serum to fight it,’ says Jh Johnson. ‘I h had d t to spend d four hours a day on a special drip. The football stuff kept me going.
‘Then I had to learn to walk again. I’d been unable to walk for five weeks. I lost all balance.
‘They had me shuffling along corridors. Up and down steps. some days were good. some not so good. I was determined not to give up.
‘Coming out of the hospital I fell over in the reception area. My missus had gone to fetch the car and I’m thinking, ‘‘I’m going to get up before she gets back”.’
Johnson’s heart operation was performed by alan Bryan, the father of Bristol City’s highlyrated left back Joe Bryan.
‘Fortunately for Lee, Joe is a very good player,’ says Johnson. ‘Fortunately for me, his father is a very good surgeon.
‘I’d like to say it put football into perspective, but football was my life and the fear of losing that kept me strong.
‘Caron would talk to me about packing up but now she knows I’ve hit a new lease of life. I’m back in the game and she’s very supportive.
‘It’s been our lives since we met at 16. now she’s going through it again with Lee. It’s very difficult for her when we play each other, which we’ve done twice.
‘he won the first 1-0 and we won the next 4-0, and she’s looking at me daggers. I said, ‘‘What’s the matter?’’ she said, ‘‘Couldn’t you have kept it to just one?’’ .’
Johnson is in every sense one of football’s great survivors. he has managed more than 1,000 games over 30 years.
he has not made it to the Premier League but came close — losing the play-off final in 2008 with Bristol City. he has won promotion five times as a manager and more as a backroom coach, having started with John Beck at Cambridge.
Plenty of players have been helped along the way, such as Mohamed Eisa, signed from Greenwich Borough and sold after scoring 28 goals in one year at Cheltenham for £1.5million to Lee at Bristol City.
Last week, the father and son connection threw a gala dinner and raised more than £50,000 for the city’s heart institute and a film of his ‘Champagne Moments’ was poignant. ‘If I retire tomorrow I will have had a good time,’ says Johnson. ‘ I’m under no illusions about Man United coming in for me nowadays. Early in your career you’re trying to stay in a job. now I’m trying to help everyone else stay in a job.
‘I want them to experience what I have. Football’s given me fun and a good living and I get excited when a new season starts.
‘If that stops, or I lose the will to get into people’s faces and improve them, then I’ll pack up.’