"I'm the luckiest man alive" - Delight for Bobby Robson
By Jonny Hall 07 May 2006
Bobby Robson has been given the all-clear after being diagnosed with cancer for the third time. A report in the Sunday Sun said today:
Football legend Sir Bobby Robson has declared himself the luckiest man alive after beating cancer . . . for the third time.
The former Newcastle United and England manager, who had a tumour removed from his lung last month, has been given the all-clear. He revealed: "I'm as clean as a whistle."
The popular 73-year-old, who has battled the killer disease twice before, told how the golf-ball sized lump was only discovered during an X-ray after a skiing accident.
Sir Bobby said: "Someone up there must like me . . . I'm the luckiest man alive. If I hadn't fallen over, I wouldn't have known about the tumour and you don't know what might have happened from there.
"I had an X-ray to see if I had broken any ribs and it showed a spot on the lung that proved to be a melanoma.
"The operation to remove it has been 100 per cent successful. I've had a thorough scan from top to bottom and I'm as clean as a whistle.
"There aren't any other tumours so I don't need any further treatment."
Sir Bobby revealed he was unaware there was anything wrong until the X-ray showed up a shadow on his lung.
He was left wincing with pain after he fell heavily on the slopes of Austrian ski resort St Anton, where he had been holidaying in February.
Sir Bobby said: "I feel very fortunate that it was caught early. I was cursing my ski accident at the time because it was so painful. But it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me.
"I had no symptoms so if it hadn't been spotted early, the tumour could have grown."
Sir Bobby underwent a three-hour operation at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital on April 8, and was kept in for five nights.
Now resting at home near Chester- le-Street, County Durham, with wife Lady Elsie, a former nurse, he has been declared fit to resume his job as international advisor to Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton later this month.
Sir Bobby said: "The doctors say I am all right to fly to Dublin for Ireland's next game against Chile on May 24.
"The week before I have been invited to see the Queen, and that's a date I intend to keep."
Sir Bobby, who led England to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Italy in 1990 had bowel cancer in 1992
He made a full recovery, but three years later he contracted the disease again, this time in the mouth.
He had a nine-hour operation and privately, his doctors estimated he had only 18 months to live.
But the tough Geordie survived and five years later he was given the all- clear . |
