Cork football great Larry Tompkins opens up on rare cancer diagnosis and recovery

Cork football great Larry Tompkins reflects on his 18-month battle with a rare lung cancer and the fight to stay positive

LEGEND: Larry Tompkins of Cork with his Gaelic Football Hall of Fame award ahead of the Gaelic Writers Association Awards, proudly supported by Dalata Hotel Group at the Clayton Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Cork football legend Larry Tompkins has opened up on the massive health challenges he has faced over these past 18 months.

The two-time All-Ireland winner and former county manager was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer early this year.

The 62-year-old admits he waited “the guts of nine or 10 months” before seeing a specialist about a pain close to his ribs. Although there was concern his lungs may have been infected by asbestos from his days as a carpenter, he was given the all-clear last year but his concerns persisted.

“I wasn't happy with it,” Tompkins recalls. “Went back then to the specialist again and he hospitalised me to see could he get to the bottom of it, and I suppose from last November when I went into hospital  they discovered then that I had a tumour on the wall of my lung and that my lung was leaking, had a slight leak in it and it was full of fluid.

“I was a bit annoyed that it wasn't caught a bit sooner, I had to get another consultant then, I changed over to a thoracic person that he looked after me then, a Limerick man, a good GAA man.

“So he had the bad news to tell me then that in January that I had this. I had previously been told that I was clear and then maybe a month later then to be told that I had cancer on the wall of the lung and it was a very rare cancer. Believe it or not, one in five million — I could be the only one in Ireland that might have it.” 

Tompkins’ reports were sent to Brompton Hospital in London who ruled out the need for an operation to remove the tumour “because it would have been touch-and-go where the tumour was and the way the lung was.”  This summer, he underwent 25 bouts of radium treatment and is on a daily immunotherapy tablet, one of “eight or nine” he takes including some for pain relief. 

“The signs that are positive are that the tumour isn't growing, it's contained, also the positive sign is that the tumour hasn't spread and it's over three years now. That's even now for the top people in London, I was talking to over on Zoom and they couldn't believe that my tumour hadn't spread. They couldn't believe that I've had it for so long and that it hasn't spread, it stayed in one area and hopefully, as I said, we can keep it contained. I'll have to live with it and hopefully I can get another 20 years anyway, please God.

“So that's the nuts and bolts, really. I'm feeling not too bad. I'm able to do a little bit around the house here. Up to last week, I wasn't able to cut the lawn, but I was able to last week when the weather was fine.

“So look, hard times and I spent three months in hospital. There were stages when I just felt that I wasn't going to come through but, look, the will and the fight, if you can just stay positive, it's a good thing.” 

Every three months, he has to pop into nearby Cork University Hospital for monitoring but he is learning to slow down. For a man whose dedication to fitness as a footballer was famous, that has been tough but that is his reality.

“Unfortunately my left lung is, even though it's there, it's dead, like. They've tried to revitalise it, they've done three operations on it to drain the fluid and they tried to see could they reinflate it, but the lung is dead, it won't reinflate, so my left lung is more or less gone and I'm just operating off my right lung.

“So my breathing at times could be a little bit of a problem. I go walking, I do exercise every day, most days, and I have to kind of stay on a flat surface rather than climbing the hills. So yeah, please God, we're going in the right direction and please God I can continue.” 

Winner of the Gaelic Writers' Association Football Hall of Fame, proudly supported by Dalata Hotel Group, Tompkins’s scare has given him more perspective. “When you get this and you never think you're going to get it, I never thought I'd end up with someone telling me that I had cancer. I don't know, just it was the way it was.

“I suppose I really appreciate each day then that you get through and you enjoy things more. When you see so many people that I was around so sick and so many young people like and even to get this award, it's brilliant.” 

During his spell in hospital, Tompkins was not able for visitors outside of family but he is truly grateful for everyone who has offered their best wishes to him. 

“I’ve had an incredible amount of cards, an incredible amount of masses said for me and all over the country.

“It’s amazing how people just come together and even outside of the country I spent time in New York and the people that rang me from New York and Boston and San Francisco, they were just so concerned, like. That was nice.”