all the best luke and kane wishing your mum well!



Tim Gilbert | 09:48am March 15, 2013

Luke Douglas has opened up about his mother's fight for life. Pic: David Clark
TRAGEDY, disaster, drama, heartache -- they are all words used liberally to describe moments in sport.

In fact they are called upon too often. Many other life experiences cut so much deeper.

When Luke Douglas runs out for the Gold Coast on Sunday for his 172nd consecutive first grade game, he will have his mind and body focused on the job, but he has a heavy heart.

Last November, one week into pre-season training, he received a phone call from his father Chris that shook him to the core.

Luke's parents were on the trip of a lifetime through Europe to watch younger brother Kane play for the Wallabies. They had only ever been overseas once before to Bali. Sadly, the dream holiday quickly became a nightmare.

Luke's mum Trish suffered a stroke on the flight into London. By the time he'd received the phone call she was in a critical condition at Northwick Park Hospital, near Wembley.

"The phone rang and it was Dad in tears. It crushed me. The next thing I was straight on a plane to England," Douglas says.

Those early days were touch and go for Luke and his family. His dad was a mess, 23-year-old Kane, who was of course traumatised, somehow managed to play a rugby Test just days later. The youngest, Jake, travelled with Luke.

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Amid everything going on, Luke had to keep fit. On his way to hospital each day he would jump off his train three stops early and run the rest of the way trying to beat his time from the previous effort.

"We were there for three weeks. Mum took a week before she showed any signs of improvement, then we found out the underlying cause of the stroke and we knew we had to get her home," he says.

"A lump high up on her leg was actually a malignant melanoma pushing up against a major artery. As ill as she was, we all agreed that mum needed to be treated by Australian doctors. They didn't see a lot of this type of cancer in the UK."

Trish was gravely ill -- with no movement down her right side, and little ability to communicate -- so getting home involved much more than jumping on a plane.

With the help of an occupational therapist in England, Luke and his dad quickly worked out what they needed to do to manage the long flight home. "That 30 hours from start to finish was the toughest I've ever faced in my life -- physically and emotionally," Douglas says.

"I have always loved my dad but my respect for him has grown even more over the past four months. He has been unbelievable, never leaving Mum's side."

Back in Australia, Luke had to get stuck into training while his mother had further treatment and tests in Sydney. He would go as hard as he could all week here on the Coast then jump on a plane on the weekend to help out his family.

Late December came another thunderbolt. The family was together to celebrate Christmas when Luke's dad got the boys together to tell them the latest news.

"We were there with Dad and a couple of my uncles and aunts. Dad said the doctors can't do anything, the tumour is too large and just too hard to get to. We all just bawled our eyes out."

With little hope, the family did everything they could to make it the best Christmas they could for their mum.

It is important to note this is no ordinary woman. All her life Trish has done everything possible to help the four men she loves so much, her husband and three boys, along with the community around her.

Working with special-needs children, Trish has often piled up her Tarago and taken them from Yamba to the Coast to watch the football.

Trish has been there for others her whole life. Now that she and her family have needed help, Luke says the support has been overwhelming.

On New Year's Day, there was finally some good news. A specialist said he could operate. They had found a way to give it a go.

With such a major operation and a football team of surgeons needed, it took until last Tuesday, March 5, for the operation to go ahead. It was 12 hours in the theatre and in Luke's words the doctors "gave it a real go".

Trish came through the operation and now hopefully is on the road to recovery. She still has no movement down her right side and can only communicate in short sentences. The most important one for her boys is, 'I love you'.

"We are far from out of the woods but I'd like to thank everyone who has helped," Douglas says.

"The Titans have been amazing and the people of Yamba have also been sensational, as have the people close to us like my partner Adele and her family. But we can only take it day by day."

The Titans have donated 300 tickets to the family this weekend so look out for a group dressed in yellow and black (the colours of Yamba) in the crowd on Sunday.

Most importantly say a quiet prayer for Trish.

Tim Gilbert has been a sports presenter and reporter for Channel 9 for the past 18 years. He can be seen this weekend on the Today S