Kiwi golfer Michael Hendry joins Martin Devlin on It’s Only Sport following his victory at the For The Players by The Players tournament on the Japan Golf Tour. It’s the 17th win of Hendry’s career and first in 15 months. More notably, it’s his first tournament win since his leukaemia diagnosis a little over a year ago.
Hendry talks to Devlin about his performance in Gunma and how sweet it felt, the latest around his health and his recovery, and much more.
Listen to the full interview with Martin Devlin & Michael Hendry at https://theplatform.kiwi/
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well it’s one of the most heartwarming stories of the year um Michael Hendry joins us thank you so much for your time and welcome back to the show mate cheers mate no at all so it was almost a year to the day after You’ been diagnosed with leukemia you you win uh for the players by The Players tournament in Japan over the weekend congratulations dude you thanks M it was uh obviously very satisfying considering what the last 12 months have thrown me so um that was um immensely satisfying day for me talk us through that the last couple of shots mate when you know you thought I can actually do this what what was flooding through your body at that stage well you did pretty um engrossed in the process really um I knew obviously Where I Stood and what I needed to do and I just made sure that I uh I got it across the line basically it wasn’t until uh Monday morning I was traveling down from from Tokyo to Kyoto where we’re playing uh this week’s event and it wasn’t until I was on the train sort of having a bit of a alone time that I that I sort of realized what I’d done and that I’d actually achieved what I set out to do you know 12 months ago on a hospital bed which was get back out on tour and um and wi again and it was um it was it was just yeah it was unbelievable it’s really great did you feel like a little kid again is it is it kind of like wow that’s my dream um I suppose I’ve kind of felt like a little kid for a while now the last sort of six or eight months CU um you know once the once the health started to take a turn for the better and and um you know it looked like I was going to be able to get back to doing what I wanted to do and and um Golf and obviously have a second chance at life it was almost like being reborn a little bit it has really changed my perspective on life and and the way I go about things and um I suppose I you know said to myself I wasn’t going to waste this second chance and it’s um it’s not only a second chance to you know do better at my golf or do better at life it was it was literally a opportunity to to take on you know worries and problems and things like that with a completely different attitude so no it’s uh it’s funny obviously very dark cloud but the Silver Lining I think is maybe it’s it’s changed my perspective to a point now where I’m probably as happy as what a wonderful thing to say and a wonderful thing to hear uh can I ask you some questions about this and you know please if you don’t want to answer them just don’t answer but but where are you at are you absolutely clear now uh not completely and utterly clear but um as things are tracking the I’m in complete remission lukim is a funny one because I can still even when you’re in complete remission identify uh Li excels within the within the marrow tests that they do but as I’m told by my Specialists if they were to take any random person off the street and give them a bow marrow biopsy and do the same testing um that they do on me uh most likely they would find both cells and almost everyone because um It’s a situation where those cells pop up and the immune system deals with them um it just so happened that or it happens that people that get linia for whatever reason their immune system stops doing the job at supposed to do and that and those types of cells start running the muck in within your uh immune system so in all reality I’m doing as well as anyone else on the street but um because I’ve got a history um obviously we’ve got to to monitor it carefully as we go forward how has it changed your golf have you you know just in terms of your your strength your resilience on court you know your breathing all of that kind of stuff does it how much does it affect all of that uh not at all thankfully um the chemotherapy is is very harsh on the on the neurological system so often when you’re taking chemotherapy they’ll run you through it’s almost like going through a sobriety test they’ll um you know test you for all sorts of different movement patterns and things like that to ensure that they’re not damaging your your nervous system too much so um it can have an effect on the neurological system um which was a bit of a concern for me uh but I pushed particularly hard through even periods of chemotherapy um in the gym with my trainer and um and made sure that my fitness level was high I felt that that was sort of one thing I could control and the journey through the chemotherapy process and and trying to get myself back and ready because um I’ll be honest after the first 6 and 1 half weeks St that I stayed in hospital I came out and I was 17 kg lighter and Lord even upstairs at home was particularly difficult um you know i’ I’d get to the top of the stairs a home I have to stand at the top of the stage for a couple minutes and couch my breath and I just kind of thought to myself look if if I truly want to try and achieve the goals that I’ve reset myself I’ve got to do something about it now I can’t wait until the chemotherapy process was completely over because the road back was going to be too long so uh I engaged a trainer early on in the piece and in some days it was all I could do was to just get through the warm up um before I was you know I didn’t have energy to continue but um work really hard during that period and uh I’m convinced it was the one thing that allowed me to get back into golf quickly um but also I’m pretty convinced it had a big effect on the on how I got through the treatment as well and I think it made it more effective um so yeah I mean physically I’m again I feel like I’m almost better than I was beforehand just like my mental attitude I think my physical stuff is is probably as good as it’s ever been as well did you consider the possibility or think to yourself or talk to those closest to you and say hey look you know maybe I might just be you know I might be going down to JK’s and hitting the box of balls in the future that might be my golfing career I might not be able to play this I might not be able to walk four days anymore you know
