- Jan 30, 2008
- 224
- 1
I fear this thread will be doomed to failure but i ask you to read this. Its an interview with Dundee Utd chairman Eddie Thompson who is dying with cancer. The team have made the CIS cup final (for those who dont know, its the scottish equivalent of the Carling Cup) and the man couldn't be happier...we can only hope he lives long enough to make. Despite the fact the game is against Rangers and i want us to win, i wouldnt be devistated if we didnt. A great man.
PART 1
United he stands - Eddie Thompson interview
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SO MUCH for mellowing with old age, so much for gaining perspective when the end draws near. Eddie Thompson doesn't have long left, cancer riddles every bone in his body.
Breathing, he says, is no longer easy and there is a growth in his brain. He refers to that, matter of factly, as "the killer". But, while his life may not span years into the future, what time he does have left will be lived his way, absorbed by the club that's an obsession but also a very conscious diversion tool.
The interview had been set up for two weeks earlier with one proviso: Dundee United must beat St Mirren in the Scottish Cup. "If we lose, I won't do the interview. I'm sorry," said the Tannadice chairman. "But I won't speak to anyone. That's how badly I take it. You might think that's silly but that's me and you won't change me now." United did lose and Eddie Thompson was true to his word. There was no changing his mind. The interview was postponed.
"The family think about (the illness] far more than me. It doesn't get to me because football is my distraction. Look at the number of column inches written about me saying 'isn't Ed great because he is thinking about the football' but it actually works in reverse, without the football I would be lost. Imagine me sitting at home and the boys in here running things." So immersed in the day-to-day affairs at the club, with so much invested emotionally and financially, even in the confines of the imagination it seems impossible. "No, I couldn't cope with that. Already today we have had a number of fairly major decisions that I have been part of but I know that my family do worry. My wife worries greatly and I'm bad to her, I know I am, because I will be away all bloody day today and she will be sitting worrying about what I'm doing. I've got very important tests tomorrow and the family will be more worried than myself. My daughter worries about me like mad, my son Stephen has been in telling me to take the special pills I need to take before tomorrow so I know that the family do more worrying.
"I'm meant to be home by 2pm. That's the deal, I work from 9am to 2pm these days but I never adhere to that. It will be more like 4pm but if I don't have something to do I just get bored out my mind."
His kith and kin may be fretting now but he says he has done all he can to minimise the stress once he's gone. In a recent flurry of changes at board level and in the administrative side, his wife Cath and daughter Justine were added to the board, with the former assuming joint ownership of her husband's 90% stake in the club and power of attorney. Manager Craig Levein, in his new role of director of football, also joined the board and additional accountants were brought in. The decisions took months and several family meetings to finalise but with his daughter reluctant to take a more active role at the moment, son Stephen was named chief executive. The sale of Barry Robson to Celtic, combined with the money earned from reaching the CIS Cup final and a top six finish will see them turn a projected £1m loss for the year into a £1m profit, and a "seven-figure sum" has been signed over to Cath, ring-fenced and guaranteed to the bank, to safeguard the club should anything go awry in the future.
"I had to make decisions because of my health," he says. "Although I'm doing okay at the moment. I have cancer in every single bone in my body but they give me good stuff and I work away on that. Unfortunately it then moved into my head which was very unfortunate and unexpected because there was only a 5% chance of that happening." That was in December and while a leading neurosurgeon had hoped to remove some of the growth to buy more time, it is believed the radiation therapy he was receiving had thinned his blood. "It was terribly weak and if they had done the operation then, it would have killed me. I haven't had that for four or five weeks now and they gave me a few transfusions and the blood count was moving up. Up to a few weeks ago my hands were all covered in bruises and marks, they are now back to normal and that's a sign that the blood is thickening." On Friday he had an MRI scan to see if the brain growth had moved or grown. If not then the operation may now go ahead. After the CIS Cup final.
"Craig kept saying before the semi-final, 'we are going to do it for you chairman' and I said 'don't lay that on me' but we eventually won through and I turned round to him and told him it is only another game! You know, he laughed for about a fortnight because he knows I take it so seriously."
PART 1
United he stands - Eddie Thompson interview
View Gallery
SO MUCH for mellowing with old age, so much for gaining perspective when the end draws near. Eddie Thompson doesn't have long left, cancer riddles every bone in his body.
Breathing, he says, is no longer easy and there is a growth in his brain. He refers to that, matter of factly, as "the killer". But, while his life may not span years into the future, what time he does have left will be lived his way, absorbed by the club that's an obsession but also a very conscious diversion tool.
The interview had been set up for two weeks earlier with one proviso: Dundee United must beat St Mirren in the Scottish Cup. "If we lose, I won't do the interview. I'm sorry," said the Tannadice chairman. "But I won't speak to anyone. That's how badly I take it. You might think that's silly but that's me and you won't change me now." United did lose and Eddie Thompson was true to his word. There was no changing his mind. The interview was postponed.
"The family think about (the illness] far more than me. It doesn't get to me because football is my distraction. Look at the number of column inches written about me saying 'isn't Ed great because he is thinking about the football' but it actually works in reverse, without the football I would be lost. Imagine me sitting at home and the boys in here running things." So immersed in the day-to-day affairs at the club, with so much invested emotionally and financially, even in the confines of the imagination it seems impossible. "No, I couldn't cope with that. Already today we have had a number of fairly major decisions that I have been part of but I know that my family do worry. My wife worries greatly and I'm bad to her, I know I am, because I will be away all bloody day today and she will be sitting worrying about what I'm doing. I've got very important tests tomorrow and the family will be more worried than myself. My daughter worries about me like mad, my son Stephen has been in telling me to take the special pills I need to take before tomorrow so I know that the family do more worrying.
"I'm meant to be home by 2pm. That's the deal, I work from 9am to 2pm these days but I never adhere to that. It will be more like 4pm but if I don't have something to do I just get bored out my mind."
His kith and kin may be fretting now but he says he has done all he can to minimise the stress once he's gone. In a recent flurry of changes at board level and in the administrative side, his wife Cath and daughter Justine were added to the board, with the former assuming joint ownership of her husband's 90% stake in the club and power of attorney. Manager Craig Levein, in his new role of director of football, also joined the board and additional accountants were brought in. The decisions took months and several family meetings to finalise but with his daughter reluctant to take a more active role at the moment, son Stephen was named chief executive. The sale of Barry Robson to Celtic, combined with the money earned from reaching the CIS Cup final and a top six finish will see them turn a projected £1m loss for the year into a £1m profit, and a "seven-figure sum" has been signed over to Cath, ring-fenced and guaranteed to the bank, to safeguard the club should anything go awry in the future.
"I had to make decisions because of my health," he says. "Although I'm doing okay at the moment. I have cancer in every single bone in my body but they give me good stuff and I work away on that. Unfortunately it then moved into my head which was very unfortunate and unexpected because there was only a 5% chance of that happening." That was in December and while a leading neurosurgeon had hoped to remove some of the growth to buy more time, it is believed the radiation therapy he was receiving had thinned his blood. "It was terribly weak and if they had done the operation then, it would have killed me. I haven't had that for four or five weeks now and they gave me a few transfusions and the blood count was moving up. Up to a few weeks ago my hands were all covered in bruises and marks, they are now back to normal and that's a sign that the blood is thickening." On Friday he had an MRI scan to see if the brain growth had moved or grown. If not then the operation may now go ahead. After the CIS Cup final.
"Craig kept saying before the semi-final, 'we are going to do it for you chairman' and I said 'don't lay that on me' but we eventually won through and I turned round to him and told him it is only another game! You know, he laughed for about a fortnight because he knows I take it so seriously."