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Lea Tahuhu opens up on her journey from being diagnosed with cancer to make England tour

New Zealand fast bowler Lea Tahuhu overcame a cancer scare to be selected in New Zealand squad for their upcoming series against Australia.

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Sam Abraham
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Lea Tahuhu

Lea Tahuhu ( Image Credit: Twitter)

New Zealand fast bowler Lea Tahuhu overcame a cancer scare to be selected in New Zealand squad for their upcoming series against England. Tahuhu underwent multiple surgeries to remove a mole from her left foot which was later found to be pre-cancerous. Tahuhu opened up on dealing with news and revealed it came as a massive shock to her.

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"It had been there for 18 months. It looked fine to start with and then it started growing slightly bigger and changed colour," Tahuhu was quoted by Newsroom. "I had the mole taken off, and all went well at that point. There's not a lot of skin on the top of your foot that you can actually pull together, so it was left a bit open."

"That morning then changed drastically, because it's not often you get words such as 'melanoma' and 'skin cancer' thrown at you, that you certainly weren't expecting," Tahuhu said. "I sat there like a stunned mullet."

Tahuhu further said the recovery was not easy as it took more time than she expected, adding that she used the upcoming tour to England as motivation.

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"What was supposed to be one local surgery and two weeks recovery, ended up being three surgeries and eight weeks later," she says.

"There were a few days where I thought, 'How am I going to put ten times my body weight through my foot when I bowl? When at the moment I've just got a hole on the side of it.'

"But then I thought, 'No, I'm determined to get on that plane', and I'm pretty diligent with what I have to get done to reach goals."

New Zealand will play three T20Is, followed by 5 ODIs in England. The pacer is now working hard to attain peak fitness before the series gets underway. This will be New Zealand’s first assignment after the home series against Australia in February.

"It's not as simple as being fit enough to run and to bowl again. It's actually the stress you put on your body.

"It's all very scientific, and done in the background as to the loads you need to hit. And being monitored by GPS and making sure you're hitting the right numbers, so nothing else in your body breaks down."

Cricket News New Zealand