Hockey: Trialist bounces back from cancer

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When Kate Mahon appeared at the Northern under-21 hockey trials in February, coach Rex Smith was nothing short of stunned.

Not because Waikato's Mahon - a member of the New Zealand development squad - was out of her depth trying out for the regional team, but because of everything she had already been through.

And was yet to go through.

In mid-January, Mahon, 20, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer after discovering a lump at the base of her neck.

On January 26, she had her thyroid gland removed and returned from Auckland, where she studies sports science and statistics extramurally through Massey University, to Hamilton to live with parents John and Judy Mahon while she recovered.

"At the time he was surprised because I probably didn't look that well," Mahon, 20, said yesterday of her appearance before Smith in February.

"You don't believe it. I was pretty shocked and also once I found out a bit more about the illness and the nature of it, I was starting to think about a timetable of when I could get back training."

Before the team trials, which Mahon did not contest, player and coach had exchanged emails; Smith conveying his best wishes in fighting cancer and Mahon quickly responding with the emphatic words: "I want to play".

"We had a chance to talk about it and we talked for about 20 minutes and as I looked across the table at this girl, I thought there was no way she could play," Smith said.

But Mahon did play, just three months later.

Two weeks ago at the New Zealand under-21 championships in Napier, the centre half was named player-of-the-tournament despite the coaches managing her workload to an average 40 minutes per game.

"In my 40 years of coaching, I have never seen anything like this sort of courageousness. It's staggering and still brings tears to my eyes," Smith said.

Mahon turned provider, laying on goals for teammates at the tournament before Northern beat Canterbury 3-0 to earn third place.

"Honestly, I was just pleased to be out there and making it through the week. I didn't know if I was going to be at the tournament a few months earlier," said Mahon, who publicly talks down her ordeal.

"It's been crazy. I'm definitely surprised because there has been times when I have said 'stuff it'. I didn't have to go to that tournament but it was my last year and I really wanted to go.

"It's still a cancer, and people seem to think the worse when they hear that, but thyroid cancer has a pretty good prognosis."

After radiation treatment in March, which involved drinking radioactive iodine and remaining in hospital isolation for a week, Mahon returned to the hockey turf in mid-March, training with Northern and her club side, Hibiscus-Dairy Flat, in North Harbour.

There would be more heartache for the Mahon family, just as Kate was overcoming the radiation treatment.

At Easter, her uncle Bill Mahon died after falling while carrying out maintenance work on an amusement ride at the Auckland Easter Show.

Mahon, who would sleep up to 14 hours a day post-surgery and treatment, is now nearing full recovery and anticipating a big 2004 in hockey.

"People have come through worse. In terms of my health, things are all right, they're coming right."

- NZPA