Kent on Saturday: Former boxer Troy Waters was never sick — until his was diagnosed with cancer
KENT on Saturday: Former boxer Troy Waters had never had an unhealthy day in his life. But that all changed after he was told: “Get yourself to hospital.”
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HIS old life no longer seems real to him anymore, which, in Troy Waters case, might be a good thing.
But then you look at where he is now, and you can be forgiven for thinking again.
In July this year Waters, still fit and training most days, felt lethargic so took himself to the doctors.
When he didn’t feel better a week later and some bruising had appeared on his body the doctor sent him for blood tests.
That night, 7pm, the pathologist called: “Get yourself to hospital, it’s urgent.”
He discovered a trifecta of words that rang his bell unlike anything that ever happened in the ring: Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
Not much of it made sense. Only four in every 100,000 people in Australia are diagnosed with it and generally they are over 60.
Waters, now 49, had never had an unhealthy day in his life. And yet here he was in a fight for his life that a majority of experts, experienced in these things, whispered he might not make through.
Waters laughed at the irony of it.
“It does my head in,” he says. “I see people down at the pub drinking and smoking and nothing happens, they’re all as solid as a rock.
“You supposedly live a healthy life and this stuff happens.”
Cancer, he knows though, can get anybody. Waters stayed in hospital seven weeks, undergoing an induction round of chemotherapy he described as “brutal”.
And it did nearly kill him, proving those experts right.
Five days in they found a hole in his oesophagus and feared the chemo’s deadly chemicals head leaked into his body. This was more serious than you might realise.
Given how hard the leukaemia had already hit him, the dosage was so strong hospital staff wore biohazard suits while treating him because if even a drop brushed on their skin it could infect them with cancer.
He was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital.
Another four weeks in hospital followed, two more consolidation rounds of chemo.
They finally fought the disease into remission and now he is trying to rebuild his body, get his blood count up for what looms as the title shot.
Life has changed dramatically now.
“It’s funny, you think back to stuff and it doesn’t feel like that was me. Fighting at the MGM Grand, fighting for world titles, it’s sort of like it’s a different person,” he says.
“Now it’s a battle walking to the bathroom.”
Troy’s father, Ces, used to come down from the mountain every Christmas to give the sports editor at my first paper, Ray Chambers, a bottle of goat’s milk. We thought he was a little eccentric, but overall a good dad.
Ces was evil. One of the worst men God ever put breath into.
He would follow the boys during morning roadwork, setting his car at a constant speed that kept them pushing. If one started to lag he soon felt the front bumper clipping their feet.
The boys knew he would not slow down.
He kept discipline with a garden hose fixed with a brass attachment. It got much worse. Child abuse of the worst kind.
It culminated, of course, with Troy and Guy fleeing the property and Ces convincing Dean and another man training at the property, Damon Cooper, to kill horsebreaker Alan Hall with a shotgun.
A jury sat through Dean’s childhood and found it so horrific they cleared him of the murder.
“You didn’t look at it as you look at somebody else’s life, it was just us at the time,” Troy says.
“Obviously what Dean did was not nice, but dad was a master of brainwashing, getting people to do things that they really didn’t want to do.”
The brothers were so tight through childhood, leaning on each other to get through, the true story never got out until Dean’s day in court.
By then Ces had died, few turning up for the funeral.
So it might be hard to find anybody better placed to simply appreciate a normal, loving family environment like Waters has created at home with wife Michelle and children Nate, 13, and Shontae, turning 10.
Perhaps better than anybody, he understands a father’s role is to protect his child.
So each day he fights his illness with as little complaint as possible.
“We tried to play it down,” he says.
“They’ve obviously been into the hospital and seen me hooked up to the machines, they know dad’s sick but we’re not trying to hit them too hard with it.
“We’re just trying to protect them as much as we can. We’re keeping strong for them. We’ll be OK.”
A fundraiser is being held at Terrigal’s Crowne Plaza in a fortnight to help the family with their mounting bills, with tickets available at www.troywaters.org.
Then next month Waters will go into hospital for a bone-marrow transplant. Brother Dean will provide the marrow, the brothers once again looking out for each other.
JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION
Stephanie Hancock leads the Australian Jillaroos into battle against the New Zealand Ferns on Saturday.
You met up with the Kangaroos on Thursday, how did that go?
Really good for us girls. We haven’t really had much to do with the Kangaroos as such, so it was a big deal to hang out with the boys and have some of them know who we are, which was a big thing for us girls.
Who recognised you?
Greg surprised me and said ‘G’day Steph’ and I was like, ‘Oh my god, Greg Inglis knows who I am’. Some of the girls are familiar with some of the boys. Maddy Studdon grew up together with Dylan Walker, they used to hang out.
Do you do much with them?
Not really. We just ran into them again walking up the mall. We went to watch a chick flick.
They didn’t go and watch the movie with you?
No, we didn’t invite them. We didn’t think they’d want to watch a chick flick. The Best Of Us, I cried the whole way through it. All the girls are giving me a hard time about it.
That’s not really front-rower-like behaviour, crying in a movie.
I cried in Finding Nemo, so now they understand what I’m like. People think I’m tough but I’m a softie inside.
The Ferns are always tough.
I’ve been playing for 10 years and I’ve only beaten them once. There’s just one word for them, they’re just tough.
CHILL PILLS
IT’S fight time in Australia. The UFC in Sydney on Saturday, Mundine-Rabchenko on Wednesday and Daniel Geale early next month. Mick Gatto is inviting some to his home to watch Mundine spar — he has a ring in his lounge room.
ANGRY PILLS
IT wasn’t that Australia lost to Pakistan, as some have tried to dismiss as “just cricket”, but the manner of the loss. The second Test loss was the third biggest of all time. And nobody is concerned?
A GOOD WEEK FOR
WHY has it taken so long for the rest of the world to wake up to the coaching talents of Tony Popovic? It seems the Wanderers Asian Champions League title has finally convinced the soccer elite he is a genuine coaching superstar, something none of his A-League success seemed to do.
But Popovic’s performance is nothing short of remarkable and, sad as it is, how long until we seeing him chasing bigger trophies overseas?
POPOVIC COULD BE A-LEAGUE’S FIRST $1M COACH
A ROUGH WEEK FOR
SAY what you like about the prestige the internationals bring to the Melbourne Cup, but a very special part of the Cup is disappearing.
Who can forget the first words when Michael Rodd won on Efficient: “I just won the Melbourne Cup, I can’t believe it, this is just unbelievable.” Or when Damien Oliver won on Doriemus: “I just won the Melbourne Cup.”
Tuesday’s winning jockey, Ryan Moore, sounded like he’d just won a welter at Sandown. The racing elite charged with selling the Cup to the world are messing with the formula, and need to be careful they don’t kill it here at home.
KANGAROOS BRACE FOR AGGRESSIVE SAMOA
DON’T MISS
FOR years we’ve joked we could always send Australia A out, or even B and C, and still whip the rest of the world in rugby league. Well, now we get the chance.
While there are undoubtedly some big names left, the injury depleted Kangaroos play Samoa on Sunday (Channel 9 3.30pm) and not only need to win, but win handsomely. And depending on Saturday’s New Zealand-England result, could still miss the Four Nations final.
Originally published as Kent on Saturday: Former boxer Troy Waters was never sick — until his was diagnosed with cancer
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