Gavin Robertson opens up on his cancer fight in Kayo documentary on his band ‘Six and Out’
‘You decide to live or die. You’ve got to make a decision’. This is the story of how Gavin Robertson’s against-the-odds cancer fight broke the hard shell of one of cricket’s most stoic characters.
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Cricket’s man of steel Steve Waugh has given a rare emotional tribute to an unsung teammate who he claims has become one of the game’s most inspirational figures.
Five years on from having a brain tumour the size of a golf ball removed from the side of his head, Test cricketer Gavin Robertson has opened up about how he has defied the grave expectation that he only had five-to-14 months to live.
Robertson’s dire high grade Glioblastoma diagnosis from brain surgeon Charlie Teo has been revealed in a new documentary as the impetus for why 1990s cult favourite cricket band Six and Out got back together for a comeback.
Waugh and Robertson, 58, share a special bond and the former Test captain praised his friend for the example he is setting anyone faced with life-threatening adversity.
“Robbo is just focused on not worrying too much about the diagnosis, but on how can I turn that around? How can I make that positive? How can I enjoy my life and make every moment a good experience going forward? He’s looking to the future and I think that’s fantastic,” Waugh says in the new Kayo documentary on Six and Out.
“He’s a great role model for all of us.
“How to handle difficult situations, make it a positive, but not make it about yourself.
“Make it about everyone else, and he’s always had that skill and that gift of making everyone else feel like they’re valued and wanted.
“That sort of adversity you don’t know you’d handle it until you’re faced with it.”
Robertson was there for Waugh when his wife underwent life-saving brain surgery from Teo 18 years ago, and it was Lynette who met Robertson on the floor of Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick when it was his turn to face the scariest moment of his life.
“When I arrive, I walk out and Lynette Waugh walks over to me. I didn’t know she was going to be there. I said, ‘what are you doing here?’ She goes, ‘you were there for me 18 years ago, and I’m here now to take you to Charlie,” Robertson told this masthead.
Robertson fights back tears in the fourth and latest episode of the documentary on Kayo now as he recalls texting Teo complaining of random pains above his left eye.
Teo urgently had him fly back from Melbourne immediately after seeing his MRI to come straight in for surgery.
“I just remember driving straight to the hospital and there he was. He had tubes coming in and out of him,” Six and Out lead singer and former NSW cricketer Richard Chee Quee said through tears.
“He had bandages everywhere. So I just held his hand.”
Robertson said he has taken inspiration from a previous low point in his personal life back in 1995 when his father told him “whatever you get handed in life, you’re normal. Because so many other people go through it.”
“You either decide to live or you decide to die,” Robertson said.
“You’ve got to make a decision and that’s all you’ve got to do.
Brett Lee's band Six and Out.
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“And that’s for anyone in life really. I think we’re just lucky to have a life, so we just do our best.”
Robertson said he never made a first-class century during his cricket career, but his goal is to scratch and claw out another 30 years and make it to age 88.
Six and Out band mates Chee Quee, Brad McNamara, Shane Lee and former Test great Brett Lee have resolved to not take a moment for granted and create ever-lasting memories with their teammate and drummer.
“When I heard the news for the first time it was absolutely devastating, and I remember we all got together at his house and just sat there in disbelief and just listened,” Lee said.
“We just made the call right then, let’s get the band back together.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen today or tomorrow. Any of us. So if we’re going to be on this earth let’s have some fun doing it.”
It’s been a massive part of Robertson’s incredible progress.
“Music is the time I actually feel calm. I feel happy. And it’s just such a great thing to handle stress in life. I think that’s the role it’s played,” Robertson said.
Originally published as Gavin Robertson opens up on his cancer fight in Kayo documentary on his band ‘Six and Out’
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