Australia’s star batter Matthew Wade recently opened up on his battle with testicular cancer at the age of 16. Wade was one of the heroes for Australia during their T20 World Cup 2021 title-winning campaign where he produced a match-winning knock under pressure in the all-important semi-final against Pakistan.
Matthew Wade Battles with Testicular Cancer
Matthew Wade slammed an impressive 41 runs off 17 deliveries and helps Australia to beat Pakistan in the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. Then the Aussies went on lift their maiden T20 World Cup trophy by beating New Zealand in the finals.
The 1987 born Aussies player recalls the moment when he suffered from testicular cancer at the age of 16.
“When I was 16, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. That was a big part of my life, but I was lucky that I had good mates in sporting teams, older people in sporting teams that really got me out of the house, and got me back in training. Sports became a real outlet for me through that period of time,” Wade said in the video shared by Cricket Australia.
“It was a challenging time but sport pushed me through the other side. It was probably harder on my family. I was a lot younger and didn’t probably understand what was going on too much. It was just kind of ‘do this and do that to get it better. It probably took a hit on the family more than it took on me,” he added.
Wade’s father Scott recalled the tough time and revealed it was hard for the Aussie cricketer to deal with issues such as hair fall during treatment. He hailed Wade’s mother for her unbelievable support throughout the procedure which helped the wicket-keeper batter beat cancer.
“Matthew got unbelievable support from his mother. It was about the hair falling out and how he was going to play cricket. He would put his cricket cap on and when he pulled it off, a bunch of hair would fall out. That sort of stuff was really challenging for Matthew,” said Scott.
Wade is currently not part of Australia‘s squad for the ongoing Ashes 2021-22 against England but remains a vital cog in the limited-overs setup.
