Wales rugby star speaks out about his cancer battle

FORMER Wales rugby international Matthew J Watkins has spoken of his ongoing battle with cancer after revealing the disease has spread from his pelvis to his spine.

The 38-year-old centre was first diagnosed with a rare type of cancer in May 2013 after originally putting the soreness in his back down to the hip injury which had led to his retirement from the game in 2011.

He underwent treatment after being referred to a specialist for an MRI scan which picked up the cancer and a formal diagnosis was made.

Since then Watkins, a product of Oakdale Comprehensive School in Caerphilly, has been undergoing treatment as well as taking part in fundraising bike rides for Cardiff’s Velindre Hospital.

But in February this year the centre, who starred in midfield for the Scarlets, Dragons and Gloucester, was told the disease had spread from his right pelvis to his spine and needed further treatment.

He has now started a new programme of intense radiation treatment at London’s Royal Free Hospital, spending two days at a time in the city for the course that will last the best part of a year.

Watkins has been keeping people up to date with his progress on social media and told us: “Everything is going great and I’m trying out a new treatment. It is what it is. There’s nothing you can do about it, you’ve just got to crack on.

“It’s moved from my pelvis to my spine and I was told that news back in February. Basically they stopped my old treatment as it wasn’t that effective.

“It’s basically four treatments over the next year and that’s it regarding that.

“You can only have four treatments because of the damage it does to your kidneys.

“They give you a good dose of radiation which targets the cancer. I’ve started this treatment two weeks ago and I spend two days up there at a time.

“I’ll be going up there every two and a half months for the radiation sessions. Velindre doesn’t do this treatment so I’m having to go up to London.”

Watkins, who played the last of his 18 games for Wales in the summer of 2006, has received staunch support from former players and the Welsh public in his fight against cancer.

Speaking about the time when he first knew he had the disease, Watkins said: “I had a bad back for about a year-and-ahalf after I retired so I thought it was all related to the hip.

“From February 2013, I knew something was wrong. At the time they didn’t know if it was cancer or a non-cancerous tumour. I was in limbo for two months really.

“I was a bit frustrated at times because we didn’t really know what was happening. But it was harder for my family than for me.”