Yuvi ignored early signs of sickness

Daddyspeak

Struggling hard to hold back his emotions, Yograj Singh, the father of flamboyant Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh battling germ-cell cancer, on Monday said he had a strong hunch two years ago that all was not well with his son when he noticed his bouts of profuse coughing on and off the field.

He said he even counselled Yuvraj to get his medical status checked thoroughly, but the cricketer ignored it saying he was all right.

As Yuvraj undergoes his third chemotherapy in the US on Tuesday, his father in Chandigarh said his son’s treatment was somewhat delayed and he would have been healthy by now had his treatment begun earlier.

Yograj said: “We could have done better. But I told Yuvraj that life and death have to be fought together. He has still to do a lot in life.”

Six months ago, when a doctor saw his laboratory reports, he advised us that Yuvraj should be taken to the US for treatment.

Yograj said Yuvi was being treated by one of the best doctors in the US. “The doctors have told him that he would return home very soon as a new champion,” his father said.  Yuvraj could return much earlier than expected.

Yograj thanked the Board of Cricket Control of India for taking care of Yuvraj like a father.
Yograj said his son was responding well to the treatment and hoped to see him roar once again on the field. “He’s a fighter and will win this battle too.

He will lead the nation as a captain and would stay on the pitch for at least 50 more years,” the father said.

Yograj wanted to accompany his son to the US, but Yuvi suggested him to stay back and complete his film.

Meanwhile, the doctors who had earlier treated Yuvraj denied that he is suffering from lung cancer, saying the malignant tumour is located in space between the two lungs and not inside it.

Yuvraj has been diagnosed with extragonadal seminoma, a rare tumour in the mediastinum, the space between the two lungs and above the heart that Dr Nikesh Rohtagi, oncologist with Max HealthCare, Saket, who is heading the India team of doctors looking into his case, claims is curable.

“It is important to understand that this is not lung cancer nor has the tumour spread into lungs. Extragonadal seminoma is a rare tumour which forms less than 1 per cent of cancers in the whole. The cure rate is 95 per cent,” said the doctor. “This cancer is called seminoma as it is a cancer of the testis. But since in Yuvi’s case it has started from the chest, such a condition is called extragonadal seminoma. It is generally found in young men,” he said. Chemotherapy is the best treatment for such cancers.

B-town prays for recovery

As the news of Yuvraj being diagnosed with cancer spread, several Bollywood personalities took to twitter to pray for his recovery.  “Shocked to learn of Yuvraj Singh down with cancer. Yuvraj, if you read this, know that we all pray for you. All shall and will be well. Yuvraj, get up in the morning and say it out loud. ‘Everyday in every way I am getting better and better. You will,” megastar Amitabh Bachchan wrote on twitter.