I’m clear of cancer – but we’re still working on our sex life, says Logan
Rugby great speaks frankly about how, despite a year of loss and trauma, he believes he is ‘very lucky’
Kenny Logan has revealed he has been given the all-clear a year after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, but the effects of his treatment mean his sex life is yet to return to normal.
The Scotland rugby great and husband of Gabby Logan, the BBC presenter, has said that while he is physically and mentally “100 per cent” after being told of his remission, there are still long-lasting effects from his “very invasive” operation.
“I’m very lucky,” Logan, 50, told The Daily Telegraph 48 hours after the latest update on his condition.
Cancer is not the only challenge he has faced in the last year. He has also had to come to terms with the deaths of his good friends and former Scotland team-mates Doddie Weir and Tom Smith, and the collapse of his beloved Wasps Rugby Club.
Heart-to-hearts with his wife have helped him keep a “positive mindset” amid what he later admits have been some “crap days”.
“Whether it be my dyslexia, my relationship, IVF, we’ve always been quite open,” Logan said. “So, I was quite happy to talk about erectile dysfunction and all these other things because I was like, ‘It is a symptom’.”
Coping with pain and heartache has become second nature for the couple: Kenny lost his father and a cousin he considered a father figure and Gabby her 15-year-old brother when they were both just coming out of their teens; he spent more than half his life in a secret struggle with dyslexia and she almost died giving birth to their twins, Reuben and Lois, now 17, conceived after years of IVF treatment.
Sharing this publicly has become routine for a couple who have raised awareness of, and money for various issues and causes.
Logan’s cancer journey saw this taken to its logical conclusion when they recorded an audio diary about it for his wife’s podcast, The Midpoint.
It featured intimate and emotional conversations about their sex life – and their fears for its future – before and after they decided Logan’s prostate should be removed.
“Six months on, I would say I’m physically 100 per cent, mentally 100 per cent, feel good,” he said, now looking as fit as when he was tearing down the wing. “From a sexual point of view, it’s not consistent. As the surgeon said to me, this could take 18 months. Within a month, I was getting movement, where he says, ‘That’s amazing.’ So it’s just not as consistent.”
Logan is quick to add with a laugh: “The beauty is you can take a tablet and it changes things.”
Since sharing his story, Logan said he has received “a lot” of messages from men telling him they went to get tested for prostate cancer as a result.
“If I can help one person, that’d be great,” he said. But I’ve probably helped a lot with the coverage it had.”
It is easy to see why Logan calls himself “very lucky” after his cancer scare when you consider the cruel fates suffered by Weir and Smith.
Weir died in November six years after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND), Smith in April from colon cancer.
Logan’s voice breaks with emotion as he remembers British & Irish Lions player Smith, who he says “ignored some of the signs” of his illness.
Logan’s tribute to Weir is even more poignant. The hugely popular former lock campaigned tirelessly before his death to raise millions to find an effective treatment for MND through his My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.
“His resilience, his bravery, is nothing I can match,” Logan says. “He was dealt the worst card in the world. And his bravery and his courage to battle it and take it head on, I think you saw the real Doddie, actually.”
Amid all the personal trauma last year came the collapse of Wasps, where Logan spent almost all of his professional career. His time there was the most successful in the club’s history and included three Premiership titles and their first of two Heineken Cup triumphs.
A consortium has been formed to rescue the club, of which Logan is a part. How involved is he? “Too involved,” he said. “I was on the phone this morning, constantly speaking to people. I couldn’t just let it go. And in these situations, people go, ‘Somebody will save it’. But there was not a queue of people trying to save it and we’ve still got a lot of work.”
The reasons behind the collapse of Wasps, and Worcester Warriors, have been well documented and Logan has said it was obvious for 20 years that the elite game was flirting with disaster. “Something needed to be done ages ago,” he said. He is equally blunt about the latest crisis in rugby, the ban on tackling above the waist at amateur level in England. He warns it will “ruin the game”, which he says is “miles safer” than in his playing days.
He said he does not fear joining the scores of his peers suffering dementia and brain injuries and has no qualms about his son following in his footsteps.
Logan was part of the last Scotland team to win what is now the Six Nations, the final Five Nations Championship in 1999. He admits he would never have thought that would herald a drought spanning 24 years.
It was a few days after attending last year’s game against England at Murrayfield, which saw Scotland retain the Calcutta Cup for the first time for almost 40 years, that Logan received his cancer diagnosis.
With last Saturday’s win coming after he was given the all-clear, he will be hoping his luck has finally turned.