Former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns said on Saturday that he has been diagnosed with bowel cancer five months after suffering a spinal cord injury following emergency heart surgery.
Cairns was discharged last week at the University of Canberra hospital after 141 days of treatment and was told of his latest health setback on Friday after a routine check-up.
“Another fight is ahead, but here’s hoping it’s a sharp upper cut and over in the first round,” the 51-year-old, one of the world’s top all-rounders in the early 2000s, said on social media.
“I was told yesterday that I have bowel cancer… big shock and not what I was expecting.
“So, as I prepare for another round of conversations with surgeons and specialists, I remember how lucky I am to be here in the first place.”
The 51-year-old suffered an aortic dissection – an often fatal rare heart condition – in August and was on life support. He was saved from four open heart surgeries but had a spinal stroke on the operating table.
Canberra-based Cairns needed urgent heart surgery last September following an aortic dissection, a tear in the inner lining of the body’s main artery.
He suffered a stroke during the operation which left both his legs paralyzed.
Cairns, who played 62 Tests and 215 ODIs for New Zealand between 1989 and 2006, is facing the prospect of spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair, but said he is simply “lucky to be here”.
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