Curt Schilling revealed this morning that he has been suffering from oral cancer – the result of a 30-year chewing tobacco habit that the former Red Sox ace said he wishes he never began, according to the Boston Herald.
“I do believe without a doubt, unquestionably, that chewing is what gave me cancer,” Schilling said during the WEEI 93.7 FM / NESN Jimmy Fund Radio Telethon. “I wish I could go back and never dipped.”
Schilling said he went through seven weeks of chemotherapy and radiation to treat squamous cell carcinoma, a cancer in the lining of his mouth. His doctor, Dr. Robert Haddad of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute said the pitcher’s prognosis is very good.
“It could be so much worse,” Schilling said. “It could be one of my kids.”
Schilling, speaking on the “Dennis & Callahan” morning show, said he kept his diagnosis under wraps for months – he was diagnosed last February – because “I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me,” and because he didn’t want to become part of the chewing tobacco debate.
“But I will go to my grave believing that is why I got what I got,” he said.
Schilling, who began “dipping” in high school, said chewing tobacco was habit-forming and he didn’t quit, despite losing his sense of smell and bleeding from his gums.
In June, baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn died at 54 in following a long battle with salivary gland cancer that he said was caused by chewing tobacco.
No comments:
Post a Comment