Border sportsman Andrew Maggs continues to fight horrific disease

The former Albury-Wodonga Spitfires star and Lavington cricketer is more than a year into his cancer battle after a shock diagnosis in April last year.

Having started in his appendix, the cancer quickly spread to the peritoneal wall - the lining of the abdomen.

Unfortunately for Maggs, doctors have revealed they will never be able to fully cure him due to the location of the cancer being inoperable as it surrounds a number of the body's vital organs, including the stomach and liver.

Maggs, who now lives in Maryborough, made his way back to the Border last July for a golf day and function organised by his home hockey club, Magpies, which saw all proceeds raised go towards supporting his treatment.

The father of two is continuing to undergo chemotherapy every fortnight after an unsuccessful trial with medication and is coping as well as he can with it.

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"In November they put me onto a trial medication which was tablets to take at home every day. It went through to mid-January and I started to get a few symptoms and my abdomen started bloating up," Maggs said.

"The doctor figured the cancer had started growing again and I ended up having 13 litres of fluid drained out of my abdomen and that took a fair bit out of me.

"Obviously when that happened I went straight back onto chemotherapy and I had my fifth dose back on Tuesday.

"I had a scan a couple of weeks ago and everything has settled down again and I haven't had the fluid build-up again. The scan showed nothing had spread into any of my vital organs.

"Unfortunately the doctors have said they'll never be able to fix me completely, but keeping me stable is as good as we can hope for at the moment."

With the COVID-19 pandemic hugely impacting the heath care sector, Maggs' has no longer been receiving treatment at Melbourne's Peter MacCullum Cancer Centre, with the hospital in Maryborough now looking after him.

"The hospital here has been great," Maggs said.

"You're not allowed to have any visitors and you have to do a screen test before you go in, which is fair enough.

"When I went to Melbourne I always had my wife and dad and maybe a mate would come down with me, but none of them are allowed to come into the room with the risk of infection."

But his determination to fight this disease continues to shine through.

"I'm just going to keep fighting, there's nothing else to do. If I stop the chemo, the cancer will start growing again," Maggs said.

"I'll keep doing that every fortnight and hopefully it keeps stable so I can be around as long as I can.

"The day of chemo, the day after and the next day are always a bit rough, but the rest of the fortnight is pretty good and I can function pretty much as normal."

If hockey resumes, Maggs hopes to get back to Albury and check out a few games.