Sean Wight - RIP

[HeaveHo]

Sean Wight passed away today after a battle with lung cancer. He was 47. Sean was a GAA player before being recruited by AFL side Melbourne where he played along side AFL legend Jimmy Stynes. Sean was not a smoker and was in apparent good health before becoming aware of the cancer.

[ross matt]

Oh my God that was so fast! Its not long since it was announced he had the illness. God rest him. I remember him as a Kerry minor with a great fetch. So young to die too.

[Sean3]

As Ross Matt says, he was a very good minor player and a great fielder. Terrible news and my condolences to his family and friends.

[stephenite]

So fast indeed, RIP

[mick999]

Tribute Video ....

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/tabid/8667/contentid/368232/default.aspx#playvideo

Jim Stynes talking about him :

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/tabid/8667/contentid/368232/default.aspx#playvideo#playvideo

[Declan]

RIP - nice tribute video

[Kerry Mike]

rip Sean. a legend and a gentleman.

[Rossfan]

Shocking news this.
R I P.

[bcarrier]

RIP Sean. Only heard he was sick at the Listowel Races on Whit weekend. It is only six weeks since he did the interview below. Very sad.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/im-46-never-smoked-ive-got-lung-cancer/story-e6frf7jo-1226084826758

SEAN Wight spoke to Mike Sheahan about the shock of his lung cancer diagnosis just weeks before his tragic death on June 30. Read the original article below.

IMAGINE, if you can, the shock, the fear, the confusion, the full spectrum of mind-numbing emotions.

You're 46 and, by anyone's definition, in excellent order. Fifteen years into retirement after a ground-breaking AFL career built on extraordinary athleticism and skill, you're just a few kilos above your playing weight.

Now, you're a golf nut and good enough to play to a handicap of six at a course as demanding as The Heritage in the Yarra Valley.

All of a sudden, your GP and friend calls and says he needs to see you to discuss those precautionary X-rays and scans ordered to try to identify a persistent cough. Immediately.

The doctor shows you the pictures then gravely advises, "You have lung cancer."

That's a sketch of life for the past three months for Sean Wight, the former Melbourne defender who turned 47 in March.

"I remember thinking 'Wow, here I am, 46, I've never smoked, never really drunk, and I've got lung cancer," he told the Herald Sun this week.

Non-smokers account for more than one in five lung cancer cases, up from about one in 20 two decades ago, he says.

The Scots-born Irishman can't remember the fateful February day, but does recall exactly how it unfolded.

"Bernie (Crimmins, brother of former Hawthorn captain and cancer victim, the late Peter Crimmins) rang me and said 'You better come in and see me.'

"I went in and he's chucked up the X-ray and he's gone 'It's not normal', and it was your classic lump about that big (the size of an orange) sitting there (right lung).

"It had spread right out that way (to the right). It was as clear as day.

"Then he told me I had lung cancer. He said 'Right, we need to find the best people to get you to go and see and start the process.' I've just fallen off a cliff."

Wight said he had the cough for about a month before seeing Dr Crimmins.

He hadn't suspected anything sinister, but admitted there were warning bells.

"The thing was, I wasn't feeling great. I was feeling normal-ish, but I was actually vomiting and stuff like that."

He was still working, still playing golf, still feeling good about life.

He thought he had a virus. "Just a bit of a dry cough. Everybody has coughs."

It certainly didn't worry him on the golf course. He proudly recounted one of his last golf rounds before learning of his illness. He carded a 74 at The Heritage's Henley course, with 37 putts. That's seriously good golf.

Currently, his exercise regimen is five minutes of gentle pedalling on a stationary bike and a slow walk to the nearest shop in Kew, where he lives with his Glasgow-based mother, Peggy, and their hosts, ex-Melbourne president and premiership player Stuart Spencer and his wife, Fay.

He has shed about 22kg (and his thatch of black hair), his weight tumbling to 74-75kg. He played at 94kg in his last season with the Demons (1995), when he reached 150 games.

Wight and Jim Stynes were the headline acts of Melbourne's audacious Irish recruiting program in the 1980s.

Both came to a foreign land to play a foreign game and became outstanding exponents of their adopted code, teammates in the 1988 Grand Final team that lost to Hawthorn.

They remain friends, although they don't see a lot of each other. In a bizarre twist of fate, both were to contract cancer in their mid-40s.

"I remember Jimmy coming to see me in hospital, and I remember saying to him I just want to do the stuff to get back to normal. And he said 'You're never ever, ever going to be normal again.'

"I can't be, I've got cancer. I'm a cancer patient.

"I can never do anything as standard as what I did four months ago.

"Just can't do it. I have to look at things differently. I have to manage my weight, manage my medication, manage my thought processes, manage the way I deal with things.

"Managing my thought processes is probably one of the big things. Here I am, I'm 47, and I'm going 'What do I do'? Some people get cancer and they can cut it out, and that's it, it's gone.

"My understanding is that the state mine is at, we can't cut it out. It's going to be there unless it gets to the stage where it just disappears."

His most recent report was encouraging. The tumour had been reduced by 40 per cent by heavy radiation and chemotherapy.

"Everybody else was 'Wow.' To me, it was like 'That's a good start'.

"The next stage is going to be important. We're not going to reduce it by 40 per cent again, but as long as it continues to be reduced, keeps going in the right direction, that's going to be the positive aspect.

"If it's isolated to one spot, they can cut it out, whereas mine actually has travelled to about three other spots, to the adrenal gland and a couple of spots on the spine."

Wight is matter-of-fact about his condition. He is seeing a counsellor, he has his Catholic faith, and he is in dialogue with his God.

He also has enormous support. "It's great having my mum out here, plus Stuart and Fay have been awesome as well.

"All the people involved in the oncology department (Freemasons Hospital) are fantastic, really absolute angels. You really find what magnificent people you have around you when something like this happens.

"The Melbourne Football Club have been stupendous with their time and support. Cameron's (Schwab) been great, 'Connols' (Chris Connolly) has been great, Jimmy's been good; the door's always open."

The club has paid for equipment and appliances to meet his special needs at home, and there's a benefit function to be held at the Bentleigh Club on June 11.

"It's very humbling that people will do this sort of thing for you."

Wight spoke candidly about his emotions.

"I wouldn't say I'm angry. There's nothing you can do about it. Just disappointed, I guess.

"It changes everything. Your goals, your expectations in life. I was thinking the other day about how I thought my life would go.

"At 10 years of age, I was living in Scotland. Then we moved to England, where I was asked to go to trials at a football club (Fulham); then we moved to Ireland, and all of a sudden I was playing county standard Gaelic football.

"Then, all of a sudden, I'm on a plane to go to Australia to play a game of football which I knew nothing about, didn't even know existed. Then it's 'You know, I'm actually quite good at this.'

"Then, to spend 28 years here and all of a sudden, I'm sick. It's left-field again. OK, let's see what left-field holds. I can't say there's been anger. Shock? Yeah, a bit of shock."

He was reportedly reluctant to have visitors in the early part of the illness, but has a perfectly plausible explanation.

"The difficulty was, up until a couple of weeks ago, they would have come here and sat and talked to everybody else because I would have been hanging over my vomit bag.

"It makes it hard, so I have deliberately kept visitors to the bare minimum."

The only time he lost control of his emotions talking to the Herald Sun was recalling the trauma of advising his mother and two sisters, Gwen (in Dublin) and Fiona (in Istanbul) of the diagnosis.

"Ever since I came here, I've had this thing in the back of my head, I'm going to get a call (I don't want) from the other side of the world. I was never expecting to be making the call from this side of the world to them to say this is happening."

The call he dreaded when he arrived here came seven years ago, when he was informed his father, John, had died after a massive stroke.

When he had to make the unexpected outgoing call in February, he couldn't speak directly to his mother, going to sister Gwen. His mother then called him.

"I couldn't tell her, but she actually handled it a lot better than I did.

"She said 'Right, OK, this is what we need to do - boom, boom, boom, boom.' The next thing she was on a plane out here."

BOTH sisters have visited, with Gwen going home on Monday.

"You just couldn't do it (without them)," he said, and his eyes filled.

"That was the worst moment, talking to mum.

"Here I am, young, fairly healthy, getting on with my life. All of a sudden, it's like, well, let's just put a full stop on that."

All of a sudden, he has a major health problem. He went home to a house he was sharing with friends in North Melbourne (his marriage ended 18 months ago) and had what he called "a bit of a quiet night".

"Julie (a friend) was fantastic for the first couple of weeks, when I really hit the rocks. She'd been through it with her parents."

Ten weeks on, he is addressing all the realities of a major health problem: his welfare, physically and psychologically; his mortality; his future; his financial situation.

He has exhausted his sick leave and effectively is out of work, although he has no problem with his former employer, Red Mercury, a small company involved in telecommunications.

"The financial side of things is really quite scary - the amount of money that we're spending on drugs.

"There's the tax benefit and medical cover, but there's a big gap.

"At the end of the day, you just hope you're going to have enough to do what you need to do."

Wight described offers of financial help as "an unbelievably humbling thing".

"For somebody to say 'Hey, I know we're just mates, but, if you need money to pay for stuff, don't hesitate.'

"Being a person such as myself, who is a bit of a loner, to say to someone 'Can you give me five grand because I need to pay some bills' - it's really scary.

"I'm hoping I'll have the courage to do it if I have to do it."

Wight has addressed his mortality during his periods of introspection.

"It's so much closer now than it's ever been before, but, at the end of the day, I don't have control over it.

"I just have to do whatever I can to make sure I'm not leaving any stones unturned, not just wallowing in self-pity, woe-is-me type of thing, angry, because that won't serve any purpose."

Wight says he doesn't have Stynes's famous optimism, but added: "We were both known for being very stubborn about the way we went about our footy, so I think it's inbuilt for both of us.

"Your moments on your own are your moments on your own and how you deal with those. So I'm seeing a counsellor, which we've only just started.

"It's a case of trying to understand, 'How's this all going to work? What am I going to do workwise? What am I going to do living wise?'

"I'm not married any more more. Does that mean I'm never going to get married again? Does it mean I'm never going to have a relationship again? You don't know.

"It's bit by bit. What do we need to do today?

"Get over this hurdle, then I'll look at the next piece, then the next piece after that."

[ross matt]

Thats a fantastic tribute video. God he was some athlete when you see him in action.

[isourboydownyet]

very sad,i had the pleasure of meeting him along with jimmy stynes when i was on trial with the demons,went out of ther way to help the irish trialists in any way they could.i have a footy signed by both.

RIP

[orangeman]

Jesus Christ that's unreal.

You'd have hated to have been an opponent.


Courage - says it all really.

RIP

[anglocelt39]

terribly sad he was a horse of an AFL player probably as important to the Demons as Jim Stynes when he was fit and playing, injury finished his career much to early, now this, RIP Sean

[anglocelt39]

Just watched the tribute video there now. The Ozzies were never able to come to terms with Seans use of the hand block i.e. hurling himself in full body length to block off the foot with the two hands, one or two of them reckoned he was a total maniac which is quite something in that code. Good to see a few clips of him well and truly sticking it up the Magpies and their tiresome followers, ultimate source of pleasure for most Demons, once again RIP mate.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

RIP. That's what you call putting your head where you wouldn't put a boot.