SANDY JARDINE says everything he has encountered at Rangers was a breeze compared to his fight with cancer. The Light Blues legend returned to Murray Park recently after a year away from the club as he received treatment and began the long road to recovery. During his visit to Auchenhowie he sat down for an in-depth interview with RangersTV, which you can see by clicking HERE now. Jardine’s illness first came to light in August last year when he went to Gers doctor Paul Jackson complaining of a sore throat. A lump was found when he was assessed and further investigation revealed a secondary cancer in his liver. Jardine underwent surgery to cut away a large section of the organ and after complications was eventually well enough to leave hospital last Christmas Eve. He then had 30 sessions of radiotherapy early this year for his throat and is now finally getting stronger again. Although he hasn’t come back to work yet, he has begun attending some home matches once more and was at the recent games against Brechin and Arbroath. Jardine was a stalwart as a player for Rangers, making almost 700 competitive appearances for them and winning 14 major honours. More recently, he was a figurehead next to manager Ally McCoist during the club’s financial troubles last year when few others would stand up to lead. Compared to what he has endured in the last 12 month, however, it all pales and he’s thankful to be alive. Jardine said: “By far, cancer is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with. If you’re fit and healthy, there’s a lot of ignorance about it. “I was very fortunate when I was diagnosed that a lot of people who have had cancer wrote me letters and emails. I spoke to people about it too. “They told me one of the big things was to have a positive attitude and I tried to maintain that but sometimes it was hard. “When you hear about cancer in the media, you only hear of the negatives. You don’t often hear about people who have recovered from cancer. “You’re human like everyone else and you do have times when you get down but people gave me lifts and my family have been fantastic. “I’m in recovery mode now. I have to say that sometimes I get really tired but they say that eventually leaves you. “Maybe I was a bit naïve when I first got diagnosed and I didn’t really know how much treatment I was going to get. “I thought I’d maybe be in and out in maybe five days when I had the first operation but they removed 80 per cent of my liver and my gallbladder. “After that I got an infection and for 12 days I was in intensive care. I wasn’t getting any better and in fact I was getting worse. “They called my family in one Friday saying I might not make it but I was lucky enough to get through that. “For want of a better phrase, they opened me up again and cleaned me out and after that I started to get better. I had another six weeks in hospital after that. “I didn’t think everything would take so long but the last year has flown in and the treatment I’ve had from the doctors, nurses and staff has been fantastic.”
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 20:00:26 +0000
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