Essendon club doctor Bruce Reid diagnosed with cancer
James Hird has described Essendon doctor Bruce Reid as ‘an incredible human being’ as the Bombers and AFL community rally behind the club stalwart in his fight against cancer.
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James Hird has described Essendon doctor Bruce Reid as “an incredible human being” who sits as one of the Bombers’ most influential figures.
Hird, Essendon and the football community have rallied behind Reid after the club released a statement saying he had been diagnosed with mesothelioma.
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Reid, 73, is in hospital after recent surgery and is on indefinite leave from the club.
Hird — who played 253 games for Essendon between 1992 and 2007 and coached the club from 2011-15 — said his support for the doctor could not be greater after three decades of friendship.
“Reidy and I have been together since 1991 — 27 years,” Hird said.
“And we’ve been through enormous highs and then enormous lows together.
“He’s just a wonderful man and has supported so many players at the Essendon Football Club in a professional sense but also in a friendship sense, and has gone over and above his job.
“He’s been there 36 years. Essendon has had great players — Tim Watson, Terry Daniher, Simon Madden, Matthew Lloyd, GavinWanganeen, Michael Long, Mark Mercuri — all these great players.
“But I think Kevin Sheedy and Bruce Reid have had the biggest influence on the club in that 40 years, in my opinion. That’s the influence that he’s had on the playing group and on the club as a whole.
“He is an incredible human being and we just wish he, (his wife) Judy and their family all the very best.”
Reid also served as a personal doctor for many past and present players and their families.
Club chief executive Xavier Campbell affirmed the club’s support.
“Reidy’s health and wellbeing are our number one priority during this difficult time,” Campbell said.
“He knows he has the full support of the entire Essendon family and the club will continue to do everything we can to support Bruce, his wife Judy and their five children.”
Mesothelioma is a form of cancer affecting the mesothelial cells across internal organs.
It is typically caused following exposure to asbestos, and can take many years to develop. There is currently no cure.
Club great Matthew Lloyd tweeted that “we all just love and adore this man”, while his premiership teammate Dean Solomon described Reid as “one of the greatest humans put on this earth”.
“Our turn to look after you, Doc,” Solomon said.
“We are all with you.”
ðŸ™ðŸ™ we all just love and adore this man. https://t.co/4GhjibrjVA
— Matthew Lloyd (@MatthewLloyd18) December 21, 2018
Reid has served as the club doctor for almost four decades, and was in 2013 cleared by the AFL on charges over governance failings at the club relating to the club’s supplements scandal.
In January 2012, Reid wrote to then-Essendon coach Hird and football operations boss Paul Hamilton – three months after the scandalous drug program began — describing some of the club’s practices as “ludicrous” in an explosive document.
He had been particularly suspicious of the calf’s blood supplement Actovegin and anti-obesity drug AOD-9604.
In dropping the charges against him in September 2013, the league said that Reid had been “marginalised” by key club figures.
He was later given the all-clear by the medical watchdog over his role in the saga.
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