Frank McGarvey has been speaking at Glasgow Central, where he was helping to promote World Pancreatic Cancer Day. The 66 year old Celtic legend made an emotional return to Celtic Park recently and received an emotional welcome from the entire 60,000 supporters inside the stadium for the match against Hibs.
Frank stood just at the tunnel entrance to the pitch and watched alongside his daughter as The Celtic Support offered their support in song with a brilliant rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone.
And that clearly had a positive impact of Frank McGarvey who has also received widespread support from football fans across the country. “The reaction from football fans has been extraordinary,” he said as reported by Glasgow Times. “I was at Celtic Park to see the Hibs game and when I walked out and the fans sang You’ll Never Walk Alone, that made me so determined to fight on.
“But I have to say I have seen a few messages on the internet from fans of Rangers, Aberdeen, Dundee, St Mirren and others, and getting all those messages from other football clubs’ fans has actually been fantastic.
“It gave me such a boost and helped me. There is a lot of ways to fight this, not just a physical thing, it is mental. Football fans and everyone around me giving me goodwill has really helped me fight this disease. I am still battling it.
“It is a sneaky cancer. It works its way into your body and hides. I have got a bit of liver cancer as well. It is terrible.
“If you have a pain in your stomach, don’t ask, demand that you see somebody. It is not about might having it or not, you have to get it checked,” is the main message that Frank wants to get out there.
Ross Carter, co-founder of (PCS), is a consultant HPB surgeon at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary had this to say. “One of the biggest problems of pancreatic cancer is people don’t know about it until they have been diagnosed or their friends or family have been diagnosed.
“It is often a very fast disease. That is why we are so passionate about early diagnosis. If you get it early there are treatments that are there. The difficulties come when it has progressed.”
Here’s the interview that Frank gave to Celtic TV on that emotional afternoon on 15 October…
