Boycott faces anxious wait

The former England opening batsman Geoffrey Boycott is facing an anxious wait into the New Year before finding out whether he has beaten cancer.

Boycott, 62, who scored more than 8,000 Test runs for England, was diagnosed with the illness in September and has spent the last few months undergoing intensive treatment.

Doctors believe he has a good chance of recovering fully from the cancer in his neck. He is awaiting further results at his home in Woolley, near Wakefield.

"The diagnosis was a bolt from the blue," Boycott told the Yorkshire Post. "I felt a lump when I was shaving one day. I told the doctor and I was being tested within days.

"The rest you know. There were four lots of chemotherapy. And then I began the radiotherapy on October 22. I asked her [the oncologist] what the prognosis was and she was very positive, very relaxed.

"Of course there are no guarantees in this situation, but she says I have a good chance and I'll be fighting it. It is the treatment that takes so much out of me. The side-effects are terrible - burns in the neck and chest.

"As the radiography slowly takes then burning starts on your neck and throat and tongue. I used to enjoy my food - not excessive amounts - but I always liked good-quality food and a glass or two of good wine. But after a while the effects of the radiotherapy meant I started only taking liquid food. Now I can't bear having anything on my mouth or tongue.

"I used to be able to get exercise by getting out for a walk, but more recently I have got tireder and tireder and when I was coming home from the treatment at 3.30, I haven't felt like going out again. The last couple of weeks have been very difficult. I haven't felt like walking.

"Now I'm being fed eight to 10 hours a day - so you've pretty much got to sit still all day. I'm just spending my time reading and talking to [his partner] Rachael [Swinglehurst] and talking sometimes on the telephone.

"I have to take a month's rest now and I'm seeing her [the oncologist] again in the middle of January. While it is still too early for tests to tell about the primary because of the swollen tissue, which has to settle down, as far as we know the treatment - make that torture - should have worked."