Leukaemia sufferer Michael Hendry returns to Australasian PGA Tour

New Zealand golfer Michael Hendry is making a popular return to the Australasian PGA Tour after battling cancer.

Inspirational New Zealand golfer Michael Hendry knows that his leukaemia will come back, but in the meantime, he’s busy showing his two daughters never to give up on their dreams.

Hendry, 44, this week returns to the Australasian PGA tour for the first time since being diagnosed with blood cancer in April.

At then time, Hendry was flying, having won the Victorian Open in February as well as securing a berth in The Open at Royal Liverpool in July courtesy of his runner-up finish at the World City Championship in Hong Kong in March.

However, his dreams of playing at the 151st Open were shattered by the leukaemia diagnosis.

“It was such a blur – it didn’t register for a little while,” Hendry said at Nudgee Golf Club ahead of the Queensland PGA starting on Thursday.

“It’s ben a very challenging year. It started so well, then the brakes got put on pretty quick.

“It’s been an emotional rollercoaster. It’s been a really difficult time physically as well but I worked hard to the point where I could come out and play a bit of golf.”

Michael Hendry has returned to the Australasian PGA Tour after a cancer battle. Picture: Australian Golf Media

Hendry’s comeback has included a win earlier this month on New Zealand’s Charles Tour.

“I played a few events home in New Zealand to test out how I could cope with a week of golf, and I’ve come through it pretty well,” he said.

“Playing golf was what I wanted to do. I wasn’t going to let the disease dictate to me (what I could do).

“My mental approach to my golf really helped me through the mental stuff with the cancer because it’s the process that I needed to go through to get the result that I want.”

However, Hendry knows his health battle is far from over despite being in “complete remission”.

“The cancer is still detectable in my bone marrow, so it will come back,” he said.

“When that happens no one knows, so I’m in a big monitoring phase at the moment.

“I have to miss the (November 16-19) Vic PGA because I’ve got to go home for a bone marrow biopsy that week, then I’ll back for the Aussie PGA (the week after).

“Depending on how that maintenance phase goes will depend on when I get a stem cell transplant, which will be the next form of treatment that I’ll probably most definitely have to go through, and that’ll be another three months of hell.”

However, when that times comes, Hendry will again be motivated to recover for his wife Tara, whom he described as his “rock through the whole thing” and his young daughters Maddison and Harper, 5.

“When I was lying in that hospital bed I thought, ‘If I’ve got a short time left, what do I want to do with that time?’ and it came down to trying do so something that’s inspirational for my kids,” he said.

“(That’s) getting through the tough times, getting back out there, being successful, and (them) seeing that it doesn’t matter how low you get, you can come out the other side and do things that are special.

“That’s pretty much become my motivation.”