Alex Young Faces Stage Four Cancer Battle

Alex Young spent a lifetime throwing his body in front of danger. Now, at 77, the former All White and Tauranga City AFC stalwart is facing the biggest fight of all – and this time he needs help.

The much-loved defender has been diagnosed with stage four cancer and is staring at a $50,000 bill for treatment not funded by the public health system. Friends, former teammates and football people who grew up watching him play are scrambling to close that gap.

Young’s diagnosis came after he noticed a growth on his left groin and went to his doctor, who sent him to hospital for tests. The news that followed was brutal. Doctors found what he has described as an “internal melanoma”, which has already spread.

“It was a strange one, but I've consequently got stage four cancer on my liver, on my lung, and on my chest,” he said.

He was initially placed on the immunotherapy drug Keytruda and stayed on it for six months. Then it stopped working. The next option was ipilimumab – a drug that, in his case, is not funded by Pharmac.

“I had my first procedure with that, which costs money, obviously. I think the first one was $10,400.”

Ipilimumab is publicly funded for some cancers in New Zealand, but not for Young’s specific condition. That technicality carries a very real cost.

He is due for his second round of treatment at Tauranga’s Canopy Cancer Care on Wednesday. Four treatments are required in total. Each one eats into the $50,000 target his friends are trying to hit.

For those who know his story, football has always been the thread running through Young’s life.

He arrived in New Zealand from Scotland as a teenager, around 16, and worked his way up through the grades. He made his name with Hamilton City, lining up alongside the likes of Keith Nelson, and quickly became known as a towering presence at the back.

“Soccer is my sport and life, I suppose,” he said.

At around 6 foot 4, he was built for the role. His form against touring English sides, including Bournemouth and Luton Town, caught the eye of national selectors. In 1977, he was named in the All Whites squad, a career peak for the no-nonsense defender from Scotland who had made New Zealand home.

He later shifted to Tauranga, where he became player-coach and drove the club to an unbeaten season. Those who were there still talk about that campaign and the standards he set.

Tauranga City AFC life member Mark Bougen, who served on the club committee with Young in the 1970s, said he was stunned when he heard about the diagnosis.

He remembers a defender opponents hated to face.

“You would call him a no-fuss football defender, a hard Scottish man,” Bougen said. “When he played, he took no prisoners.”

That same steel is now being asked of him again, this time in a chemotherapy chair rather than a penalty box.

A Givealittle page has been set up to support Young, with organisers aiming to raise $50,000 – a figure they describe as essential “to give Alex the best possible chance” against the disease.

They spell out the reality bluntly: the financial load of unfunded treatment is “too much for one person or family to carry alone, especially while navigating the physical and emotional toll of a cancer diagnosis”.

Young admitted he was initially reluctant to let friends launch the campaign in his name. Pride and privacy had always come naturally to him. But the effort those around him were already making changed his mind.

“When they came around to see me, they were so good and they had so many good ideas. I thought, well, if they're willing to go to this trouble, I'll try it.”

By the time of writing, donations had reached about $2000 – a start, but still a long way from the total needed for four rounds of ipilimumab.

For Young, every contribution lands heavily.

“I'd like to thank them from the bottom of my heart. They're probably strangers. Thank you to them all.”

The defender who once cleared danger for everyone else now finds his own goal under siege. The question is how quickly the football community, and the wider public, can close ranks around him.