I'm incredibly blessed, says the sufferer as he reaches out for the hand of sport An all-round hero has carved out a media career while facing the fight of his life. Tim Glover hears how he is coping
Independent on Sunday - United Kingdom;
Sep 2, 2001
Biography
Alastair Hignell
Born: 4 September 1955, Cambridge
Educated: Denstone College, Uttoxeter
and Cambridge University
1972: Played rugby and cricket for
England schools
1975: Scored a record 19 points in
the Varsity match against Oxford at
1985: Joined BBC as a sports assistant
1999: Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis
Honours: Won 14 caps for England
at full-back, retiring through injury in 1979 (he retired from county cricket
three years later). Won four Blues for Cambridge at rugby and four at cricket.
Alastair Hignell has a disease that
is progressively getting on his nerves. Like 85,000 other people in this
country he is suffering from multiple sclerosis. Most people are familiar
with the term, particularly its chummy abbreviation, MS. The tragedy is
that the medical profession has a name for the illness and that is all.
"There's no known cause, no known
cure and no predictable outcome,'' Hignell said. "What they do know is
that it attacks the central nervous system and you're left with exposed
nerves. Once a nerve has gone they can't replace it. It's not so much a
killer as a life-ruiner.''
For the time being one of the most
talented sporting all-rounders of his generation is doing everything possible
to prevent the illness from ruining his life. Yesterday he was at Kingsholm,
reporting for BBC Radio 5 Live on the Gloucester-Northampton Premiership
rugby union match. On Tuesday he celebrates his 46th birthday and in a
few weeks moves from his house in Bristol to an apartment overlooking the
old docks, which have been converted into an attractive residential area.
The point about the flat is that it has no garden and no stairs. Hignell
can no longer handle either. And his golf clubs and his bicycle are up
for sale. "Cheers, good health,'' he said as he raised a glass of wine
at the River Station, an establishment that will soon become his local.
MS is particularly cruel because
of its debilitating effects and its degenerative process which chips away
at the nervous system. "This year I'm anticipating problems,'' Hignell
said. "My right leg is becoming a worry and when I'm driving I'm less confident
in moving my foot from the accelerator to the brake. You have to look at
all sorts of ways to make the physical problems less demanding. The attitude
of sufferers is we've got it and we've got to do something about it. It
could be worse. Everybody gets down. You don't know what the future holds
and there are times when you think `Why me?' ''
The musician Jacqueline Du Pre was
an MS sufferer. David Thomas, the former Surrey fast bowler, has it. He
is 42 and was diagnosed 14 years ago. At 11am on 8 January 1999 Hignell
was told by a neurosurgeon: "Have you ever thought about multiple sclerosis?
We think you've got it.''
Hignell knew something was wrong
three years earlier. "I had a bladder problem and then a finger and thumb
on my right hand went numb. The feeling's never come back. One day I was
interviewing Richard Hill at Gloucester and my hand was shaking so much
I couldn't hold the microphone.''
A body scan confirmed the neurosurgeon's
fears. "I have a cousin who has a benign form of MS so I didn't think there
was much to worry about,'' Hignell said. "That's the best one to get. The
worst is called primary progressive. Within six months you'll be in a wheelchair
and you'll probably lose your speech. There's another form called relapse
remitting. You can be down for six months and then recover. The next attack
could be years away. I've got secondary progressive. You're on the slope
and you gradually go downhill. I have noticed my right hand is not working
as well as it was three months ago but I've never had a serious attack.
I'm lucky because I can still get around. Writing is becoming a problem.
I have to take notes at the end of a game and read them quickly. If I was
a surgeon I'd have had to have given up my job.''
He also considers himself fortunate
in another respect. Ian Robertson, the BBC rugby correspondent who got
to know Hignell when they were at Cambridge University, organised a dinner
at the Cafe Royal last November which raised pounds 170,000. In the haphazard
fashion in which the disease is treated in Britain, the money allows Hignell
to buy time, specifically in the use of the drug Beta Interferon. It limits
the number of relapses, but the problem is that the National Institute
of Clinical Excellence will not recommend it to be available on the NHS.
They think it hasn't been proven enough and that it does not help everybody,
particularly advanced cases. In the Bristol area there is funding only
for 12 people to receive the drug. When Hignell asked the local health
Trust for Beta Interferon he was told he was in the wrong category. If
he'd been a "relapse" patient rather than a "progressive"' he would have
qualified.
The drug is expensive - "companies
charge whatever they think they can get away with" said Hignell - hence
the charity dinner. "I'm incredibly blessed. My friends in sport have been
fantastic.'' He spends pounds 11,200 a year injecting himself three times
a week. After each bout he feels as if he has a very bad case of flu.
Hignell was the non-running captain
for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the national charity, at the last London
Marathon and he intends to do a lot more. He is trying to raise pounds
1,250,000 to build a specialist centre.
He attends an MS treatment centre
at Nailsea. "It's in an industrial estate and has far too many people to
deal with. The problem in this country is that everything is fragmented.
The centre I visit is not connected to the NHS. There's no such thing as
a one-stop MS shop and there should be central clinics dealing with both
treatment and research. People end up traipsing all around the country
and the one thing you don't have is energy. A walk of 50 yards can be hard
work. There are a number of angry people at the treatment centre.''
Hignell was born in Cambridge, the
son of a doctor who became a Group Captain in the RAF. Tony Hignell, who
had three sons and a daughter, threw the javelin for Great Britain at the
Empire Games in Auckland 50 years ago and was a useful cricketer. Alastair
attended his father's alma mater, Denstone College in Uttoxeter, where
he excelled at rugby and cricket. He played for England schools at both
sports.
"I always thought I'd be a professional
cricketer. I'd played with Paul Parker, Peter Roebuck, Chris Tavare and
Vic Marks.'' At 18 he was offered a contract by Gloucestershire, earning
pounds 800 for six months' work and for a glorious year played county cricket
in the summer (he was a middle- order batsman and outstanding fielder)
and rugby for Bristol in the winter. In 1974 he went to Cambridge to read
history and Robertson, who was looking for a goal- kicker, asked him to
switch from scrum-half to full-back. His debut was against Cardiff at Grange
Road. "Gerald Davies was on the right wing and when I lined him up for
a tackle he stepped off his right foot. He was under the posts and I was
amongst my mates in the stand.''
In 1975 Hignell scored a record 19
points in the Varsity match and the same year was selected as a full-back
in an experimental England squad for a tour to Australia. His first cap
came in the notorious "Battle of Ballymore" where the Gloucester prop Mike
Burton got sent off in the second minute.
In all, Hignell got four Blues in
both rugby and cricket at Cambridge. He won 14 caps for England but failed
to represent his country in a cricket Test. "I got mentioned in despatches
but never really kicked on from playing for England schools. I once got
a century in each innings for Cambridge against Surrey and Trevor Bailey
wrote that this man should go on the tour to Australia. I think he got
a bit carried away.'' This was the same Trevor Bailey who deprived Tony
Hignell of a cricket Blue at Cambridge.
Alastair got a teaching job at the
Cathedral School in Bristol and continued to play cricket for Gloucestershire
and rugby for Bristol. He was a West Country fixture. His debut in county
rugby came against Herts. And Burton got sent off. Hignell's last cap for
England was in 1979 by which time he was painfully aware of problems with
his ankles. "I was born with things wrong with them and a specialist told
me if I carried on playing cricket I'd have to stop playing rugby.'' He
scored 11 first-class hundreds, one of them against the West Indies.
For two years he taught history,
and cricket, at Sherborne School in Dorset before a career change which
would keep him in the public eye. Following a few stints for Radio Bristol
he applied for a job as a sports assistant with the BBC. "I joined at the
same time as John Inverdale. The Beeb took a chance that I knew a bit about
two sports and they could teach me about journalism. In those days they
trained you up. The salary was pathetic but it was better than public-school
teaching. Mind you, teaching is the best by far for job satisfaction.''
He joined HTV in 1989, working on
World Cups and Lions tours and in 1995 produced Rugby Warriors for ITV.
"It was a series on what rugby means to the world and the whole thing was
a wonderful experience. After that I was back to reading sports news.''
He joined Radio 5 Live in 1996 and
covered the Lions tour to South Africa the following year despite suffering
from osteo-arthritis in his right hip. It was after interviewing Jon Webb,
the former full-back, that Hignell realised he would need a replacement
hip. Webb, an orthopaedic specialist, remarked to the interviewer: "You're
walking like some of my patients.'' Because of the condition, Hignell's
right leg was five centimetres shorter than the left.
Now he walks with a stick, dragging
his right leg along. His wife Jeannie - they have two sons Adam, 20 and
Dan, 18 - runs a ceramic design company. "When I was told about the MS
I sat her down and told her I'd got something that has no cure. She said
it's not yours, it's ours. She has been fantastic.'' Do the sons follow
the Hignell sporting tradition? "No. They're punk rockers.''
Hignell's latest defences against
the disease involve a weekly session in an oxygen tank. "It's the equivalent
of a diving bell. It was noticed that divers who suffered from the bends
had scars on the brain similar to MS patients. I'm now down to the equivalent
of 33ft. The idea is that you come out feeling much better. I met a woman
who says that it gives her enough energy to get through the week and I'm
hoping it will do the same for me. The perception of MS is of people in
wheelchairs but a huge proportion haven't reached that stage. The most
common symptom is fatigue. All you want to do is lie down. The key is preserving
energy.'' He is also trying out an electric stimulator. He has two electrodes
attached to his right leg which release an impulse designed to help him
raise his foot.
Hignell has had some bad experiences,
notably at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and in Melbourne for the second
Lions Test. "Although I've got a disabled sticker on my car you can't park
anywhere near the stadium in Cardiff, which means you're tired before the
start. After the match everything is locked and the stewards disappear.
I had to find a fire escape and climb six flights up to the commentary
box. Melbourne also involved long walks and by the time I got back to the
hotel I was stumbling and tripping all over the place. Even small stadiums
seem massive to me. I'm going to have to devise a plan.''
For the most part Hignell remains
cheerful and optimistic. "MS seems to be striking people of a younger age.
I met a lovely girl, the swimmer Stephanie Millward, who was training for
the Sydney Olympics when she was told she'd got it. At least I've had a
sporting career and a lot of fun. There are worse things in the world than
this.''
All Material Subject to Copyright
BY TIM GLOVER
Twickenham. Made England rugby debut
against Australia in Brisbane. Made
maiden century for Gloucestershire
against the West Indies at Bristol.