MICKEY THOMAS has always lived life with a laugh — the full-speed, full-of-fun joker who has found humour in everything he does.
The man who treated it all with the same beaming grin, sense of devilment and a quip.
Yet this time 12 months ago there was suddenly nothing to smile about.
There was no joking his way out of this one, not the bolt-from-the-blue news that was so shocking the former winger collapsed.
Thomas, a legend at Manchester United, Wrexham, Stoke and Chelsea — to name but four of his double-figure list of former clubs — had felt unwell for some time.
He had been struggling to swallow for months and was visiting Bangkok with Bryan Robson when his life changed forever.
Thomas, 65, revealed: “Robbo had been ill himself in the past and said ‘You’ve got to see a doctor’. Just the way he looked at me scared me.
“I went the day we got home and said I needed a camera down me but he wouldn’t give it to me.
“A friend with lots of money said he would pay so I went the week after.
“The doctor came back and said he couldn’t get a camera down because I had a blockage, a very large tumour, which was bleeding.
“I asked ‘How long have I got?’ and he said he didn’t know because he had to test to see if it was all over my body.”
More scans proved the cancer was localised — but that was the end of the good news.
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