Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown opened up on the PokerStars Blog this week to give the poker community an update on his health. Brown was diagnosed with liposarcoma, a rare form of cancer, four years ago and, despite five operations, still has cancer cells in his body. As the lead picture shows, Brown’s appearance shows obvious effects of the cancer treatment but the story is not as bad as it looks, according to Brown: ‘Playing in the events recently at the PCA and at the Borgata, it has been evident to me that everyone could tell my illness had come back. Little did they know it has come back many times. But because the bowel obstruction has caused me to lose a lot of weight, it perhaps gave the appearance of me being more sick than I am.’
The future of Brown’s condition remains unclear but the American pro, who has over $3.6m in career tournament winnings, remains optimistic. ‘There is still cancer in my body, and what we hope for is that I have enough time for there to be a new drug developed for me. Until that time, it’s a fluid situation. What’s next has not even been determined yet. It could be that I wind up on another chemo drug. What the chemo does is to shrink the tumor, which buys you time, but it’s not a cure. But there are a couple of drugs out there that are coming out that have high promise, so that’s what I hope for.’
Brown says that throughout his ordeal poker has been one of his ‘biggest passions’ and he’s had some consistent success recently too, notably a $37k in a Las Vegas tournament in January 2014. Brown finished his blog on a high note, equating his struggle with cancer to that of any poker player suffering from a bit of negative variance: ‘As far as how I personally handle the ups and downs of the illness — the “swings” you might say — that really is like poker, too. People in the poker world who know me know how I accept it as part of the game when things aren’t going well and I’m running bad…We all have a choice when it comes to how we want to feel about what’s going on in our lives. If you want to feel like a victim, that’s your choice. I choose not to. I don’t feel like a victim. I feel very blessed with the life that I’ve had, regardless of what happens. I’ve never been depressed about this at all.’
You can read the full blog post from Chad Brown here.
Everyone at PokerPlayer.co.uk wishes Chad Brown all the best in his recovery.
Photo courtesy of pokerstarsblog.com and Joe Giron photography.
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