EXCLUSIVE: Melbourne Cup-winning trainer John Symons was given three months to live
The remarkable story of Melbourne Cup winner Knight’s Choice has taken another astonishing twist with one of the co-trainers revealing that, no so long ago, he was given just three months to live.
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Melbourne Cup winner John Symons has come back from the dead – not long ago he was given just three months to live.
In the afterglow of the incredible Melbourne Cup win of Queensland bolter Knight’s Choice which Symons co-trains with Sheila Laxon, he has revealed how close he came to the end.
In late 2019, a friend convinced him to go to hospital after he returned to the Sunshine Coast from a trip to Melbourne with unbearable back pain.
Scans revealed terrible news – Symons had a six centimetre tumour on his lung as cancer from an undetected melanoma ravaged his body.
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“They literally told me that I should get my things in order because I probably only had three months to live,” Symons told Racenet.
“I went to the cancer bloke in charge and he put me immunotherapy and I had four double doses.
“They wouldn’t operate, because the cancer was across both lobes of my lungs.
“The next 12 months, I spent probably eight months in hospital.
“Thank Christ it worked and I’m here to tell the story and I’ve just won the Melbourne Cup!
“I’m so lucky to be sitting here telling you this story.”
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Symons, who once trained the great sprinter Bel Esprit, shared some beers in Melbourne this week with the friend who initially convinced him to go to hospital, almost certainly saving his life.
“I was getting shocking back pains, I thought I might have a bit of pleurisy in my back, and a friend talked me into going to hospital,” Symons said.
“Four hours later the doctor came out and said ‘we have some bad news, you have got a six centimetre tumour on your lung’.
“They kept me in that night and did a biopsy.
“The next day or so it came back that it had been a melanoma.
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“They couldn’t find a primary cancer anywhere on me, but the cancer had taken off everywhere inside me.
“They put me on immunotherapy and what that does is it gets your cells to recognise and attack the cancer.
“My immune system went through the roof, and my body turned on itself, which gave me pancreatitis.
“Everyone told me that immunotherapy isn’t as bad as chemotherapy, but I can tell you, it knocks the living shit out of you.”
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Symons, who celebrated his greatest racing moment with wife Laxon as the couple won the Melbourne Cup, never let the cancer battle get the better of him.
At one point, he was sent to see a psychologist and he heeded the instructions.
“He said I had to stay positive, well, I always did that,” Symons said.
“I kept on walking, I would be exhausted when I got home.
“But I wasn’t ready to go, I hadn’t won a Melbourne Cup.
“Every morning when I wake up these days, I think I’m lucky to be here.”
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Symons’ training partner and wife, Laxon, told Racenet: “It really is a back-from-the-grave type story. You can imagine how devastated we both were at the time, it was terrible,” Laxon said.
“We were facing the fact that John had not much hope to live much longer.
“It was a pretty horrendous time.
“But it has ended up being a story of hope and a story that might really mean a lot to people who might be facing a similar situation.”
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Symonds, 68, has been happy and healthy in recent times.
But less than a week after an incredible Melbourne Cup win, he will learn some more major health news.
He will fly back from Melbourne to Queensland and on Monday he will have scans which he hopes will give him the final all-clear from cancer.
“I have to fly home to have another PET scan to make sure it hasn’t come back,” Symons said.
“On Monday, they will either find something or they will say I am all clear.”
Originally published as EXCLUSIVE: Melbourne Cup-winning trainer John Symons was given three months to live
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