Stynes reveals physical and emotional battle with cancer

GAELIC GAMES:JIM STYNES, the former Dublin All-Ireland minor winner who went on to have an extraordinary AFL career both as player and administrator with the Melbourne Demons, spoke on radio yesterday of his continuing battle with cancer.

On local station 3AW with his wife Sam to launch a muesli product he had developed during his illness, the 1991 Brownlow medallist, who was introduced to the teams before last week’s International Rules Test, talked about how he had beaten the initial diagnosis, two and a half years ago, and was now being treated with an experimental drug.

“I wouldn’t say I’m flying. I’ve been belted a bit in probably the last three to four months, but I’m just coming back up again. I can feel the last two weeks I’ve had a bit of a break and I’m starting to come back out again,” he said.

“I’ve got two beautiful kids and a beautiful wife ... and it took me a long time to realise what that really meant. Sometimes I sit with Sam and I’ll start crying because I know what I’m going to miss out on and that gets hard.

“I love life and I don’t want to miss out on it. In particular I’ve got two amazing kids and I just don’t want to miss that. And I know they’ll be okay, they’re young and they’ll move on and whatnot but . . . to me that’s always the hardest part.

“You see young people getting ill and dying and their kids are still young and they’ve got a whole lifetime ahead of them, and often they don’t know their parents, won’t know . But it’s a blessing, that’s what I want to make sure people understand too.”