Martina Navratilova: Now she is ‘cancer-free’!
She is a great champion. Her 59 grand slam titles, including 18 singles titles and 41 doubles and mixed doubles trophies, remains a lucrative record, as does her nine Wimbledon singles championships. In all she won 167 singles and 177 doubles titles in the world Tennis court.
after throat and breast diagnoses
Now she is 66-year-old – one of the greatest tennis players of all time, our beloved Martina Navratilova had feared she ‘may not see next Christmas’. Why this fear?
In an interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV, llshe said: “As far as they know I’m cancer-free.”
Navratilova, the winner of nine Wimbledon singles titles, said she “should be good to go” after more preventive radiation on her breast over a two-week period.
The Czech-American was forced to postpone plans to adopt a child with her wife, Julia Lemigova, when she was diagnosed. Martina said: “I was in a total panic for three days thinking I may not see next Christmas.
The 18-time grand slam champion previously underwent treatment for early-stage breast cancer in 2010. She said she visited doctors with an enlarged lymph node in her neck at the WTA finals in Texas.
Navratilova told TalkTV: “I noticed that my left lymph node was enlarged and I thought it was from a shingles vaccine I’d had a week before. But then after a couple of weeks it didn’t go down so I called the doctor.”
Biopsy results indicated – it was cancer. But the tennis celebrity had to wait four days to find out where it originated in her body.
Navratilova opened up on how she was left “very up and down” during the illness due to undergoing radiation treatment every day for three weeks and three weekly rounds of chemotherapy, which she stated was “definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done”. She is a strong lady. Strongly built.
“That was the hard part because the first week was both chemo and radiation at the same time,” she said. “When you start feeling lousy you’re not sure if it’s from the chemo or the proton.
“I didn’t really feel the proton until week three but then you get a sore mouth and your throat starts closing.
Everything’s swollen and very uncomfortable, and the proton makes your saliva weird. You don’t really taste things the right way. Chemo does the same thing to your throat but then it makes it dry.
“So, you’re just hit from all ends and I don’t think the doctors do a very good job of telling you how the shit is going to hit the fan.”
During a career that spanned from 1973 to 2006, with a hiatus between 1996 and 2000, Navratilova became the most successful female player in the Open era. In that period, Martina – Sabatini, Martina – Staffy Graff dual were great crowd puller event.
By Dipankar Guha
