Heartwarming moment cricket great Chris Cairns takes huge steps in his battle to overcome devastating effects of a spinal stroke and heart attack
Heartwarming moment as cricket great Chris Cairns takes huge strides in his fight to overcome the devastating effects of stroke and heart attack
- Chris Cairns has made tremendous progress in his recovery
- The cricket great suffered a heart attack, stroke and cancer
- Cairns was filmed on Wednesday walking on crutches
New Zealand cricketing legend Chris Cairns has made huge strides in his recovery from stroke and heart attack as he released a heartwarming video for his fans this week.
Cairns, 52, is wheelchair-bound after suffering a stroke following catastrophic heart failure due to an aortic dissection, a tear in the inner layer of the main artery.
A few months later he was diagnosed with colon cancer.
Cairns took to Instagram on Wednesday to show off his progress, sharing a video of him standing alone for several seconds. You can also see him walking a few meters with crutches.
“Besides meeting the remarkable John Maclean (man, what an inspiring guy)… today was just surreal,” he wrote.
Chris Cairns has shared a heartwarming update on his health battle
The New Zealand cricketing legend suffered a heart attack, stroke and cancer last year
“A huge thank you to Daz and Paul from @neuromuscular_o…two men who help people improve their lives…you are both champions. Just keep moving it forward… inch by inch… smashing some ceilings along the way… (please excuse the half nakedness and the chicken legs).’
Cairns underwent multiple surgeries, rehabilitation and chemotherapy over a brutal twelve months, recently reflecting on his ordeal.
‘I’m no different from anyone else… there’s no secret recipe. It’s essentially a choice,” he told the podcast Between Two Beers. “The human race is endowed with a possession in the mind that allows you to choose your response to any situation.
“That’s the most important thing you own, and sometimes people don’t use it. It’s easy to be a victim, easier to be someone else’s fault… to be unlucky.
“I just never carried that mentality. Maybe it was because of cricket or other things in my life… that aspect of choice is always the most important thing.
“Of course I burst into tears or feel terrible, but I try to get out of that quickly. The most important things in all this are choice and purpose.’
Former all-rounder Cairns is regarded as one of his country’s best cricketers