I would've been better off having a patch and a parrott

DUBS LEGEND REVEALS THE COST OF CANCER TREATMENT ON HIS BODY

- Roy CURTIS

If you can still stand after such a tender and heart-wrenching story, then another cascade of emotion is already rolling down the next hill.

Hickey’s own life has been stalked by ill-health, a quarter-century fist-fight with the the Sonny Liston of sicknesses, the coldest, most remorseless of knockout punchers, the rapacious foe that is cancer.

It has ransacked his body again and again, stolen so much, yet still — somehow — his humour and spirit and hunger for justice and life remain untouched.

That he retains the will to fight for others while staging such a fight for his own life feels miraculous to a self-pitying coward like myself.

"I'm having my dinner right now (Hickey points to a milkshake type drink in his hand). I'm having strawberry flavour today for a change. There are two flavours vanilla and strawberry. I haven't eaten in years.

"In my opinion, not being able to eat is more socially disabling than blindness.