Wayne Cherry used to wonder whether cancer would stop him seeing the All Blacks play live. But he'll have the best view in the house when he carries the flag on to Eden Park ahead of the team's second Bledisloe Cup test against Australia next weekend.
On Valentine's Day 2008, the Hutt Valley boy, then 13, was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the immune system, and endured a gruelling two years of chemotherapy treatment. In a moving speech to the cancer charity Cure Kids, he spoke of how he'd lived with chronic pain and how he couldn't walk for two weeks after some rounds of chemotherapy. He lost 10 friends in four years, teenagers and children he met during his treatment, including a toddler who died the day after her fifth birthday.
The treatment was tough but Wayne had shown signs of his mettle before his diagnosis. He'd been a top motocross competitor, and took eighth place at a New Zealand Grand Prix meet only three days before going into hospital.
"The doctors could hardly believe he could actually ride a motocross bike in the condition he was in, let alone finish in the top 10 in the country," Cure Kids' Hayley McLarin said.
Wayne said cancer diagnoses that not so long ago were a death sentence were now more easily overcome. And from his own experience, he had words of advice to Kiwis diagnosed with treatable cancer.
