Australian batter Nic Maddinson opened up on his challenging journey of suffering from testicular cancer, undergoing an operation and then going through daunting weeks of chemotherapy as he eyes a comeback for New South Wales in the upcoming season.
Australian batter Nic Maddinson has revealed his arduous journey of overcoming testicular cancer, following an operation and weeks of struggle due to chemotherapy. Maddinson, who last played a Sheffield Shield game in March, had his tumour removed after the diagnosis. However, the battle had just begun for the left-hander as after the surgery, he got to know that the cancer by then had spread to various parts of his body and he had to undergo extensive sittings of chemotherapy to get it done with once and for all.
“Once I found out I had to have chemo, that was pretty hard to deal with,” Maddinson was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au, to Nine newspapers. “It had spread to parts of my abdominal lymph nodes and lung. That was a bit where it was pretty daunting.” The 33-year-old admitted that those nine weeks of chemotherapy were the most challenging period of his whole journey of beating cancer, as he was taking some steroids to manage the side effects and those had their own consequences on his routine.
“By the second or third week, I lost all my hair. I was feeling pretty average. I was taking types of steroids to manage side effects, but they would keep me up at night … I’d sleep until about 1am, but sometimes I’d then be awake until 6 am. I found that difficult. I was super drained and felt like I had to sleep 24/7,” Maddinson, who became a father for the second time during this whole period, further said.
“It was the slowest and longest nine weeks,” Maddinson said, while being amused at the fact of how rapidly it spread despite him being alert enough to get it diagnosed as early as he did and that, according to him, was the scariest part.
“To know that I caught it probably as early as I could have, and it still spread into other parts of my body, that was scary. I just think it’s so important if you have anything you’re worried about, get it checked out.”
Maddinson’s chemotherapy finished in mid-July, and two months later, he discovered that the treatment had been successful. The southpaw then began taking baby steps towards a comeback in cricket. His first net was as early as just two weeks after chemotherapy, but it was in September that he had a proper session alongside a few of his New South Wales squad members.