Australian cricket legend Allan Border has opened up in detail about his battle with Parkinson’s disease and how his life has changed following the diagnosis. Border asserted that his health is pretty good, but admitted that dealing with Parkinson’s is tough.
The former Aussie captain has avoided appearing at public events since being diagnosed with the disorder back in 2016. He, however, appeared on Fox Cricket and took the microphone for the ongoing Australia-West Indies Test at the Gabba.
Speaking on Fox Cricket’s The Big Break at tea on day two of the Test match, Border magnanimously shared details of his fight with Parkinson’s disease.
“Actually my health is good apart from having Parkinson’s my general health is pretty good. I get checked out fairly regularly and just do what I am told by the doctors. So the rest of the body is good. It is just the Parkinson’s and dealing with that like a lot of people have to, but generally speaking I am in pretty good shape,” the former Aussie batter said.
“I still play golf. I still go for walks and can do all the things I normally do. I am not running any marathons anymore, but apart from that things are pretty good,” he added.
Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder in which the brain stops developing dopamine, which affects muscles and the nervous system. It results in shakes and a few other issues. Border revealed that he has to take supplements to deal with the same.
“Got sore in the hip and so I just thought it was age catching up” – Border on Parkinson’s diagnosis
The former Australian captain was first diagnosed with the disease after he underwent a series of tests with various doctors. Eventually, one of them confirmed that he was suffering from the neurological disorder.
Recalling the sequence of events, Border said he thought he was suffering from some normal age-related illness before being shaken up by a doctor’s revelation.
“I got really sore in the hip and so I just thought it was age catching up with me and I started to get a bit of a dead leg. Things like that started to happen more regularly in about 2015. I was first diagnosed in 2016. I went through all the testing procedures for things they thought it might be, but at the end of the day I had to go and see a neurosurgeon,” Border said.
“And as soon as I walked in the door he [the doctor] just said, look Allan I can just tell you have Parkinson’s disease I am sorry to tell you. Just like that you could have knocked me over with a feather basically. I knew something wasn’t quite right, but I didn’t think it was that bad,” he added.
One of Australia’s greatest cricketers, Border played 156 Tests and 273 ODIs, scoring 11,174 and 6,524 runs respectively.
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