11-05-2025
Sir Ian McGeechan: ‘I have prostate cancer'
The conversation then swings around to his health. 'The Lion King' has an important disclosure to make, and in the moment, displays all the leadership skills that guided the tourists to series victories in 1989 and 1997.
'I have prostate cancer,' he says, matter-of-factly. 'I have just completed a six-week course of radiotherapy. I feel all right, really, just a bit more tired. I always sleep well anyway so it has probably just added to it. I have to wait six weeks then have scans and a review of how effective the treatment has been.
'I have told the players here before the treatment started because there would be times when I would not be around for meetings or on the training field with them. The players have asked me how it is going and have been very good.
'I don't want to make a big thing of it, but it is important to get the message out about urging people to go and get tested. I said that to our players here. I said to them that they make sure they get themselves tested. If you are younger, it is more important.
'Hopefully this interview can be educational. What I would say to people is don't back off it. It is a blood test, it is not what you always think. Just get it done. I have good people looking after me. It is the very good side of the NHS. The staff of the Bexley Cancer Wing at St James's Hospital in Leeds have been absolutely brilliant.
'When I had my last treatment, from the receptionist to the radiographer, they all said: 'Well done, good luck, have a happy time.' Everyone. They all knew. When they are looking up your details and you are going on to your next step, it says which number of treatment is it, and it is what they say to every person when they get to their last treatment, which I think is great. That support and the environment is so positive. What will be, will be.'
'The doctor looking after me is a rugby man'
McGeechan said the problem first emerged just over a year ago. 'I started getting up to go to the loo in the middle of the night, which I have never done before,' he adds. 'As my wife would say, I can sleep through most things, so the fact that I was on the move in the middle of the night was something different.
'Judy told me to get a blood test to check and the PSA [prostate-specific antigen] was higher than normal. I was sent to a special consultant in Leeds and then he put me on a monitoring system – regular blood tests, MRI scans and two biopsies. It was after the first biopsy they said there was definitely cancer there. A lot of it was level two or three but a little bit was level four, which is the dangerous one.
'It was continually being monitored and to make sure I had another biopsy and scan last October and it had changed, and the decision was made to look at treatment and look at it more closely to not let it get out of hand.
'The doctor who is looking after me is a Northern Irishman and is a rugby man, so he did recognise me and some of the other doctors came to see me in the waiting area to shake my hand. It is nice. It still means a lot because the Lions have been such a big part of my life, and my family's life.
'I was booked in for treatment for the start of April after a month-long course of pills, and I did 20 days of treatment. They put little tattoos on your stomach and around your pelvis where the cancer is and then they line up with lasers to accurately target with the radiotherapy.
'After treatment in the morning I would try to come up here to Doncaster for training in the afternoon.'
'You just deal with it and get on with it'
In October, McGeechan will enter his 80th year, but he looks at least 20 years younger. The athletic frame that won him 32 caps for Scotland at fly-half or centre still visible as he sports a Doncaster tracksuit. He joined the championship club as consultant director of rugby last year as a mentor to head coach Joe Ford.
