Kevin Sheedy on his cancer scare and Evertons Irish contingent
Kevin Sheedy is on the long road to recovery following his diagnosis with Bowel Cancer almost 2 years ago and the long road to recovery. The Everton legend spoke to the Irish Telegraph about his treatment and is encouraging people to get themselves checked out.
The Irish winger is now enjoying life working with the Everton academy and in particular the under 18’s, where he has a talented crop of youngsters coming through Finch Farm.
Cancer is a horrible thing that affects millions of families each day and Sheedy’s message to people is clear though
He said: “See your GP if you suspect anything is wrong.”
“I’m all clear so everything’s good. I’m really healthy and enjoying life,” he says. “Now I’m doing as much as I can to bring awareness of bowel cancer particularly and early diagnosis.
“When I was first diagnosed, I was contacted by a few people to say there’s a good opportunity, because of having been a player for Everton, it might attract attention and get the message to football supporters in particular.
“So I said if I can help one person, then it would be more than worth it.
“Over the last 14-16 months I’ve received letters from people saying that due to my publicising my illness, they’ve gone to their GP. They’ve been diagnosed with bowel cancer and they’ve been successfully treated.
“That gives me a lot of help mentally, in that I’m helping other people and that’s great.”
Speaking about Evertons new crop of Irish talent Sheedy was delighted to be working with them. Everton have Seamus Coleman, Shane Duffy, Darron Gibson, James McCarthy and Aiden McGeady in their first team squad and have a number of youth players too and he believes that it is important to the Irish National set up to have these players playing at the top level.
“We like to get good Irish players over playing for Everton – we’ve got a massive fan base in Ireland and it’s great for them to see Irish players playing for Everton,” says Sheedy.
“I think it’s important for the Irish team that you’ve got international players playing at top clubs because that’s going to improve the quality of the national team.”