Alex Young Faces Stage Four Cancer with Community Support

Alex Young has spent a lifetime stopping trouble in the penalty area. Now the former All White and Tauranga City AFC stalwart is facing the toughest opponent of all – stage four cancer – with his old football community rallying to help fund life-extending treatment.

The 77-year-old was diagnosed after noticing a growth on his left groin and visiting his doctor, who sent him to hospital for tests. Specialists discovered what Young describes as an “internal melanoma”, a cancer that has since 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.

Young spent six months on the immunotherapy drug Keytruda. Then the treatment 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, but not for the specific condition Young is battling. That gap has left him staring at a $50,000 bill for a full course of treatment.

He is due for his second round at Tauranga’s Canopy Cancer Care on Wednesday. Four treatments are required in total.

A defender who took no prisoners

Football has been the thread running through Young’s life. He left Scotland as a teenager, around 16, and settled in New Zealand, quickly climbing through the grades and making his name with Hamilton City. There he lined up alongside figures such as Keith Nelson and carved out a reputation as a commanding defender.

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

His height – around 6 foot 4 – and no-nonsense style made him a natural at the back. Strong showings 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.

Later, he became player-coach at Tauranga, driving the club through an unbeaten season and cementing his status as a local great.

Tauranga City AFC life member Mark Bougen, who served on the club committee with Young in the 1970s, said the cancer diagnosis came as a shock.

He remembers a defender you did not want to run into.

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

Community steps up for a club legend

With the cost of treatment climbing, friends and former teammates have launched a Givealittle campaign aiming to raise $50,000 – a figure they describe as essential “to give Alex the best possible chance” against the disease.

The page notes the financial strain of unfunded cancer treatment is “too much for one person or family to carry alone, especially while navigating the physical and emotional toll of a cancer diagnosis”.

At first, Young was reluctant to let them go public. Pride, habit, the defender’s instinct to handle things himself. But the determination of those around him 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.”

Donations had reached about $2000 at the time of writing – a start, but still a long way from the target.

Young, who spent decades throwing his body on the line for club and country, has been moved by the response.

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

For a man who built his name on clearing danger for others, the question now is how far the football family can go in clearing it for him.