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Home / Sport

Motorsport: Battling V8 driver decides to make health No 1 priority

Eric Thompson
By Eric Thompson
NZ Herald·
23 Sep, 2011 05:30 PM4 mins to read

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New Zealand V8 Supercars' driver Jason Richards' battle with cancer has been well documented, but what does the future hold for him?

Earlier in the season he announced he was putting his fulltime driving status with Team BOC, as part of the Brad Jones Racing stable, on hold and would contest only the endurance rounds.

Things were looking good earlier in the year with a win in the Fujitsu Development series in Adelaide and more recently at the Muscle Car Masters event at Eastern Creek driving an ex-John Harvey HDT Torana.

Despite winning, Richards has decided his health is more important and pulled out of last weekend's L&H 500 at Phillip Island and said he would not be returning to Mt Panorama for this year's Bathurst 1000.

Which would challenge the fitness of any healthy person let alone someone with cancer.

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"I'm not too bad at the moment but obviously my health isn't all that fantastic. But the last scan showed the new drugs I'm on seem to be the best I've had and it's shown it's held the cancer stable," Richards said.

"It's the first time in about 10 months there's been a scan that's shown the brakes [cancer progression] might be on so that's been really good."

Richards has always been someone who can take the positive out of anything and who knows, having such a positive attitude may go some way in helping him combat his illness.

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"As you know the cancer inside me is quite significant these days and I need to hear that news both mentally and physically. The cancer hasn't got smaller, but neither has it got bigger in the past four weeks," he said.

The Nelson-born driver is due to go for another scan in six weeks' time to ascertain if the new drugs are still working and if they are he'll continue with the expensive treatment.

At this point in time, only one other person in the world has benefited from this form of treatment.

"So far so good, and I'm just hoping I'll be the second person in the world to benefit from this treatment. We'll just have to wait and see if the treatment has a bigger impact on the cancer and the best thing is that it buys us some more time.

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"It's really good and mentally it helps a lot," he said.

"Beats the hell out of going into the oncologist all the time and getting bad news."

For a man with a lot on his mind health wise, Richards hasn't stopped being involved in things that make him enjoy life.

Of course there's his family, but he's also enjoying racing cars, albeit not in the main game, and has discovered a new passion.

"My doctor hasn't seen anyone like me. I'm still racing cars and playing golf most days. While I'm not dead yet I'm still living my life like I would normally.

"Until they put me under I'm not easing up.

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"I'm mentally a lot stronger if I stay active. Playing golf now is great because it's not as physically demanding as racing a car but is still a challenge.

"I was hoping to do a celebrity golf tournament in Europe and then do a race at the Nurburgring but I got sick again so it didn't come off. It's still very high on the radar and it'll happen one day.

"One thing I noticed, though, golfers aren't risk takers in general not like car racers," said Richards.

Battling cancer isn't all about the treatment and the drugs.

For people like Richards who don't let the trials and tribulations get on top of them, carrying on with life as much as normally possible is a vital part of their recovery.

And if golf is the next best thing to racing V8s, so be it.

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Richards was diagnosed with adrenocortical carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer, in November 2010.

Jason Bargwanna is standing in for Richards while he recovers and messages of support can be sent to his Facebook fan page - www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Richards-Fan-Page.

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