''I'm not dying of this, I'm living with it and I want to beat it' - Support for Waterford's Greene
by Fintan O'Toole · The42JIM GREENE RECALLS the afternoon ‘the bombshell happened’.
It was a routine day in April 2022 in his home in Waterford until the news arrived that saw their lives swerve off course.
His son Brian and his wife Debbie landed in from the Ardkeen Hospital.
“(A) Thursday afternoon at about three o’clock in my kitchen.
“(The) two girls (Brian’s sisters) were there, Debbie and Brian were coming from Ardkeen, and they obviously contacted them to go up to my house.
“It wouldn’t be unusual for the two girls to be (there), we all live in the city. Next thing Brian and Debbie comes in, and he just stood there and sure we didn’t know what was coming next and he told us.”
Brian had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
It was third stage cancer. It was very bleak at the time.
“So we were all speechless, obviously, and devastated. I would have said before this happened that I’d hate to be one of them people that get that type of news.
“But I ended up as one of them and I can understand that, and I sympathise with every single one of them.
“But look, as a family, we supported them in every way and Debbie did amazingly. They created a positive reaction to it. The doctors, the treatment was good, they were great people.”
The Greene family is synonymous with Waterford hurling, embedded in the Mount Sion club and famed for their playing exploits.
Jim’s father Paddy played for the Waterford side that contested the 1938 All-Ireland final. Jim’s own career saw him star for Waterford sides and win an All-Star in 1982.
Brian forged a reputation as a defender of renown, part of the Waterford team that made a magical breakthrough for the county when winning the Munster title in 2002.
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Father and son combined at club level also, that same year Jim was manager and Brian a player as Mount Sion were crowned provincial champions.
It’s why the hurling community have now rallied around Brian as he continues to receive treatment.
Having been unable to work for the last two and a half year, the Friends Of Brian Greene have come together with Waterford Hospice.
They have organised a hurling throw-in for 2025, the current Waterford and Cork senior team will play a fundraising challenge match in the Fraher Field in Dungarvan on Saturday 4 January.
The game was launched last Wednesday night in the Park Hotel in Dungarvan. Brian’s former team-mates are to the fore, with De La Salle’s John Mullane and Lismore’s Sean Daly spearheading the fundraising drive.
Dan Shanahan (Waterford) and Donal O’Rourke (Cork) represented the two management teams, with players like Ciaran Joyce and Austin Gleeson also in attendance.
“I am very thankful, they’re two great chaps anyway, they’ve always been and I would know the two of them fairly well,” says Jim Greene.
“De La Salle man and a Lismore man, supporting a Mount Sion man, that’s not easy to happen!
“Just shows you there’s no barriers really inside the GAA, it’s all the one. The respect between them is phenomenal and this proves it.
“Brian the feeling he’s getting from this people, like them two chaps doing what they’re doing, is a mental cure. It’s part of the mental journey he’s going through, that there’s people care and are willing to do things about it. He’s not on his own.
“Sonia (a close friend of Brian’s wife Debbie) is a big one (in supporting this). She kind of hopped the ball first within the club and they had a gofund me thing and there was money spent there. She kind of hopped the ball first within the club and they went up and done a few bits and bobs.
“But then the lads popped in, (helped to) bring it to this level, and you know, so it’s ongoing, 12 months (in planning). But it’s happening now thank God.
“He has a house, he has a mortgage, he is not working for two and a half years. May not work again, I don’t know.
“His lung is damaged. There’s the mundane side of life as well, like mortgages and things like that. Positivity don’t pay mortgages either, you know what I mean?
“So when this type of thing happens, that eases that side (of worry), it’s all part of a healing thing.”
Jim hails the attitude his son has shown.
“He was absolutely devastated, but he’s a stubborn fellow and, he left the dust settle on it for a little while. He was very quiet, said nothing.
“I was up with him one day and was there at the front (of his house), and he was in a bad way now and he kind of decided that this wasn’t good for him.
“And he tried to go off in a different direction and he went off successfully in a very positive way.
“His favourite saying is, I’m not dying of this, I’m living with it and I want to beat it. Debbie was the same and then we’re all the same. We’re all playing off the same hymnsheet,
“It’s a very sad thing, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. It’s a horrific thing within a family.
“Then you get joyous moments. When he came to us and told us that the chemo was working and they were changing them on to a different type of chemo that you don’t get on to unless you’re getting better…immunotherapy I think is the name of it.
“When you get to that stage, apparently, you know, you’re on the mend. You get a moment like that, it is a profound moment as well. He’s due a scan now in December.”
In the same month will be Brian’s 54th birthday. On the first Saturday night in January, he will be at the Fraher Field as the Waterford and Cork hurling communities gather to support him.
“No doubt about it that he will be at the match. And it is going to be a good match. A win to both counties would be important. It’ll be the start of their season.
“It is humbling as a family. He is a shy fella. He didn’t want the press talking to him. He’d be embarrassed. He is very little in the public eye. Nice and quiet, tip away and do his own little thing. We are here to represent him.
“When this bombshell happened, we were all just absolutely devastated. Especially a fellow like Brian. Ye wouldn’t remember him playing, but he was untouchable. Fit man. Hard man, stubborn man. So this happened, bang. His whole world changed, all of our whole family’s were changed.
“It is a lot nicer place than it was two and a half years ago, that is a fact. Please God, another two and a half years on, it will be in a nicer spot again. He is going in the right direction. He is a tough man. He’ll continue that effort. There’ll (be) nothing stop him, thank God.
“A family can’t deal with this on its own. There has to be outside help. There needs to be this type of encouragement and love and respect coming. That lifts everyone.”