Jamie's already a winner

parragirl · Jamie's already a winner

League of his own ... Jamie Simpson overcame cancer as a teenager and is now on the verge of making his NRL debut. Photograph: Phil Hillyard

By Josh Massoud
February 20, 2008 12:00am

RUGBY league values its comebacks. A victory snatched from the jaws of defeat is always held in higher esteem. A player who defies injury can bank on instant respect just for taking the field.

Jamie Simpson is one such player, although the odds he beat were infinitely higher than those stacked against some of the game's most memorable comebacks.

Simpson, the 20-year-old South Sydney rookie, beat cancer.

Not once, but twice.

Five years ago, his chances of surviving - let alone playing NRL - were bleak. Just when it appeared a draining six-month course of chemotherapy had cured his Hodgkins lymphoma, the Rockhampton product was left shattered when doctors told him the deadly cancer had returned.

"That actually scared me more than when they said I had cancer in the first place," Simpson said. "After getting the all clear, it was devastating. There was a stage when I just wanted to throw it all in. It was just too hard."

Chemotherapy reduced Simpson from a strapping 14-year-old league prodigy to a listless, bed-ridden patient nursing a lump "the size of a fist" in his groin.

"Chemo is the hardest thing you will ever do in your life," he said. "I'd be half conscious for ages. I'd spew up for 10 minutes every two hours."

Worse was to come. When it was apparent the chemo had failed, a stem cell transplant shaped as Simpson's "last resort".

He was rushed to Royal Brisbane Hospital and sealed off from his parents for three weeks as the dice were rolled for the last time.

One of the few messages that penetrated was sent by Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett, who, on the inside cover of his autobiography Don't Die With the Music In You, wrote: "Tough times come and go, but tough guys last forever".

"My immune system was totally wiped out, so I was basically put in quarantine," Simpson recalled. "I caught pneumonia and had severe back problems. I was fed through a drip. They gave me morphine through a catheter.

"I could only stay awake for a couple of hours, I'd sleep all afternoon. But the hardest thing was being away from my family."

In the end it was those closest that gave him the will to survive.

"You look around at your family and that's what keeps you going," Simpson said. "Now, looking back, they are the reason I pulled through."

Simpson survived, but the legacy of his cancer battle remains. He now weighs 90kg - less than when he was first diagnosed - and has shifted from five eighth to the centres.

Simpson recaptured his slashing junior form while finishing high school and linked with Bennett in 2006. He spent the past two seasons excelling in the Broncos' feeder teams before joining Souths, where he will begin his quest for an NRL start off the bench during Saturday night's trial against the Sharks in Gosford.

"Going through this has given me the biggest drive ever," Simpson said. "The pre-season training we're doing now is nothing compared to going through chemo for six months."

Incredibly, none of his Rabbitohs teammates were aware of his unique past until the team's trip to Jacksonville, Florida, last month. While not seeking to promote his struggle, Simpson appreciates its capacity to inspire other young sufferers.

"I don't mind if people find out," he said. "Ultimately, I want to help other kids with the disease and show them you can beat it. When my footy career is over, it's an area I want to work in."

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