{"id":117478,"date":"2021-08-21T04:25:15","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T04:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=117478"},"modified":"2021-08-21T05:56:25","modified_gmt":"2021-08-21T05:56:25","slug":"ex-nrl-star-played-through-secret-cancer-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=117478","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NRL star played through secret cancer battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Canberra<\/a> and Penrith<\/a> centre Adrian Purtell's world was rocked when doctors diagnosed him with cancer earlier this year.<\/p>\n

But in a stunning show of courage and determination, Purtell has continued playing football in the bush – while he has been undergoing an intensive course of chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

Purtell, 36, is coach of NSW Group 9 club Albury Thunder and kept the illness a secret from the local footy community.<\/p>\n

\"Adrian<\/p>\n

"I felt a lump in my throat in March and about six weeks later, after all sorts of tests, it was diagnosed as Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma – an aggressive cancer that attacks the body's vital organs," he told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"It was pretty scary but the one good thing was that it was only stage two and hadn't spread so that was a small victory.<\/p>\n

"I underwent six lots of chemotherapy and they really knocked me around for 10 days or so each time – it's not something I enjoyed.<\/p>\n

"But I still love the footy and saw it as a welcome distraction from all my worries.<\/p>\n

"I couldn't train much before games because I felt too crook and that made it tough.<\/p>\n

\"Adrian<\/p>\n

"I sat on the bench and planned to play only 20 minutes or so. But I couldn't help myself – most weeks I played around 60.<\/p>\n

"I'm finished with the chemo now but have a four-week radiation cycle ahead of me – hopefully that will be the end of it."<\/p>\n

Purtell had planned a charity match this weekend with proceeds to go to the Albury Regional Cancer Centre to show his gratitude for helping save his life.<\/p>\n

But the match – and the rest of the Group 9 season – has been cancelled due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n

"It's a real shame because they have been great to me – hopefully I can find another way to help them out," he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The cancer wasn't the first health scare for Purtell, an honest toiler who played over 200 first grade games in Australia and England.<\/p>\n

"I had a heart attack while I was at Bradford in 2012," he said.<\/p>\n

"But I got over that and got back on the field – you just have to keep going.<\/p>\n

"I'd like to think I've had more than my fair share of health scares and can now live a long, healthy life."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Canberra and Penrith centre Adrian Purtell's world was rocked when doctors diagnosed him with cancer earlier this year. But in a stunning show of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117478"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117480,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117478\/revisions\/117480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}