Alex Young's Battle with Stage Four Cancer
Alex Young, the towering former All White and Tauranga City AFC stalwart, is facing the toughest battle of his life after being diagnosed with stage four cancer – and the football community is rallying to help him fight it.
The 77-year-old discovered a growth on his left groin and went to his doctor, who sent him for hospital tests. The results were brutal. Young was told he had what he describes as an “internal melanoma”, and by the time it was found, it had already 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.
For six months, Young was 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 in New Zealand, but not for Young’s condition. That leaves him staring at a bill of around $50,000 for four rounds of treatment. His second infusion is scheduled for Wednesday at Tauranga’s Canopy Cancer Care.
So his friends have stepped in.
A Givealittle page has been launched with a target of $50,000, described by organisers as the amount needed “to give Alex the best possible chance” against the disease. They write that the cost of unfunded treatment is “too much for one person or family to carry alone, especially while navigating the physical and emotional toll of a cancer diagnosis”.
By the time of writing, donations had reached about $2000. Early days, but already meaningful for a man who spent a lifetime giving to the game.
Young’s Football Journey
Young’s story in New Zealand football stretches back more than six decades. He arrived from Scotland as a teenager, around 16, and worked his way through the local grades before establishing himself at Hamilton City. There, he lined up alongside names like Keith Nelson and quickly built a reputation as a commanding defender.
“Soccer is my sport and life, I suppose,” he said.
His height – around 6 foot 4 – made him a natural presence at the back. In 1977, after strong performances against touring English clubs including Bournemouth and Luton Town, he earned selection for the All Whites squad.
Tauranga, though, is where his legacy truly settled. Young became player-coach for Tauranga, guiding the club through an unbeaten season and helping to shape a culture that still echoes at Tauranga City AFC.
Club life member Mark Bougen, who served on the committee with Young in the 1970s, said he was stunned when he heard the diagnosis. His memories of Young are of 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.”
That hard edge on the pitch has given way to something softer off it. Young admitted he was initially reluctant to allow his friends to launch a fundraising campaign in his name. Pride gets in the way. So does the instinct to handle things yourself.
What changed his mind was seeing how much they cared.
“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.”
The response has already moved him.
“I'd like to thank them from the bottom of my heart. They're probably strangers. Thank you to them all.”
A defender who once took no prisoners now finds himself relying on others. The question is how far the football family – in Tauranga, across New Zealand, and beyond – can carry one of their own through this fight.
