Footy icon Darryl Brohman has revealed his six-month battle with blood cancer is over after he emerged from several gruelling chemotherapy treatments.
The 69-year-old former Penrith and Canterbury forward turned TV star on Channel Nine’s Footy Show left the footy world in a state of shock when he announced his Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis in November last year.
Now he has credited his recovery to good luck in not getting a more severe case of the disease, and his dedication to following his treatment to the letter.
‘The threat of cancer is gone,’ Brohman said after he got the green light a few weeks ago.
‘I went by what my doctors said, and did everything that I had to do.
‘I had six lots of chemotherapy three weeks apart, which I was very tired from.
Former Penrith and Canterbury star turned beloved TV and radio commentator Darryl Brohman (pictured) recently got the news that he has beaten Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
The former Footy Show star endured six rounds of chemotherapy before getting the all-clear
Brohman (pictured with Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin) credited good luck and doing everything doctors told him for his recovery
‘But right from the start both my GP and my specialist said to me it was very treatable.
‘When you get told you have cancer, obviously it’s a kick in the guts a little bit, but they said, “If you’re going to get cancer, it’s probably not a bad one.” So I took that as a positive.
‘Even though I was flat, I always knew I was going to be OK … I just roll with the punches.’
Brohman told News Corp that he ‘got a little bit teary’ when he was flooded with messages of support from right across the footy world when news of his cancer fight first went public.
‘I got so many texts from people who I didn’t even know knew me,’ he said.
‘I didn’t know people cared.’
Brohman said he had ‘been a bit crook for the last six weeks or so’ when he first revealed his diagnosis.
‘It’s a form of cancer and I have started treatment. I start chemo on Monday, and there’s about a 21-day period between the chemos and there are about six or seven that I’ve got to do,’ he told radio 2GB.
The footy great known as the ‘Big Marn’ revealed the symptom that led to the shattering news.
‘I was a bit crook in the stomach and I just felt a bit heavy and I just went and got tested. I have probably been tested about seven or eight times,’ he said.
‘They had to form an accurate opinion of what it was.’
Brohman has returned to his commentary job with 2GB’s Continuous Call Team, but said his days of going on tours to events like the NRL’s season-opening matches in Las Vegas ‘might be over’.
‘I’ve learnt I’m happy to be alive,’ he said.
