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Pray for Joe Gallagher
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
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big lennox
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 2550
- Joined: 06 Feb 2004, 13:44
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
That's fantastic news!!!
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SeanBrennan
- Bantamweight
- Posts: 10023
- Joined: 12 Feb 2022, 12:45
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
Interview with Tris Dixon in his Boxing Life Stories channel. It’s brilliant such good news
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Ruthless-RKO
- Welterweight
- Posts: 103901
- Joined: 24 Apr 2016, 11:59
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
Joe Gallagher: ‘I always thought, f*** you, cancer, I’ll f***ing do you’
A few long months after selecting which songs would be played at his own funeral, what guests would be there to hear them, who would carry his coffin into church and where that coffin would be buried, Joe Gallagher sits with Roberto Duran, his hero and friend, in a lavish hotel in Bangkok sharing a dessert.
Such is life these days for the British trainer.
After getting the all clear from Stage 4 cancer, Gallagher was at the WBC Convention to accept a lifetime achievement award, one the 57-year-old knows he is receiving predominantly because he’s still alive.
“I’m finding it hard getting used to people being nice to me,” Gallagher says, chuckling. The trainer has long been known for battling with promoters, media and sanctioning bodies purely for the benefit of his boxers. Naturally, he has rubbed some people wrong along the way. But the entire industry rejoiced when Gallagher, after telling everyone he would do so, beat the deadly disease.
“Genuinely, the warmth and the kindness is quite thawing,” he goes on. “The way I was looked after yesterday and we had the reception at the cocktail party around the pool and they brought out a huge birthday cake for me, we had candles, they sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me. It was like, wow, Mauricio [Sulaiman] and the whole team at the WBC are being brilliant.”
Gallagher was astonishingly positive, at least on the outside, during that grueling 12-month quest to kill the cancer that was invading his bowels and liver. There must have been dark clouds behind the scenes, though. Did Gallagher ever lose his grip on the silver linings, even if only momentarily?
“No, I wouldn’t say I did,” he says. “I wouldn’t entertain [negativity]; I didn’t want to entertain it; I didn’t want my brain to be entertaining the complications. I did have to go through the process of arranging funerals. Wills, all that type of stuff. Songs to be played, people to speak, where to be buried. All that stuff. And that was hard.”
Gallagher’s forever mentor is Phil Martin, the trainer who passed away from cancer in May 1994, barely months after being diagnosed with the disease. “I was always aware of the aggressiveness and how quick things would go,” Gallagher explains. “I was always aware of that in the back of my head, but I wouldn’t entertain it. When I went to [cancer center] Christie’s and they gave me leaflets, I just put them in carrier bags, put them on the stairs. Didn’t want to see things lying around the house to remind me of it. I just threw myself more into work – more fights, more fighters, more dates. I just thought, ‘Well, I’m the captain of my own ship and I’ve got to lead by example.’
“‘Cancer,’ I always thought, ‘fornicate you. I’ll beat you. I’ll fornicating do you,’ no problem. That ain’t a problem. What was the problem was the small little battles along the way: your pride, your bit of respect, going to the hospital, having medicals, having your colonoscopies, asking to roll over and have another finger stuck up your bum. Then, when you’re in the hospital ward at two in the morning and you think you’re passing wind and you’re not, and you’ve had to go and ask a nurse in the ward to help change the bed sheets and stuff like that. They were the battles where you think, ‘fornicating hell,’ like, Jesus, especially when you think yourself bigger and better in your pride, and that’s what got stripped away.”
Gallagher had resisted going to the doctors for a comprehensive check-up for several years prior to his diagnosis. He felt fit, you see. There were no symptoms, no reasons to seek help. It was only after he was persuaded to get what he calls “a full-body MOT” and a stool sample was taken that the cancer, lurking boldly but silently behind his bowels, was discovered. For Gallagher, arranging that checkup was his “sliding doors moment.”
“I always think to myself: If I wouldn’t, in that haste of a moment, [have] picked that phone up, at what point this year would my bowels have ruptured?” he explains. “Would I have then gone to the hospital and looked at the possible treatments and then what would it have been? You’re on the egg timer. The egg timer is turned upside down. That’s how long you’ve got. … I’ll always be forever grateful for the one or two people around me that forced me and pushed me to go and have that done that time, because at the time when it was diagnosed, the tumor was huge; it had broken the back wall of the bowel and had spread to the liver. I had no signs.”
Therein lies the obvious takeaway from Gallagher’s story: get yourself checked out regularly. But the sport of boxing, and its pull to those under its spell, is second only to Gallagher as the hero of the piece. After enduring further treatment late last summer, the coach knew he had only six weeks to get himself in shape for a trip to Las Vegas. One of his boxers, flyweight prospect Mikie Tallon, needed him in the corner, and Gallagher had no intention of letting him down.
“I’m going for walks around the block and then the next day crashing out, being in the gym, not being able to shout because the energy was taken out of me,” he remembers. “The lads seeing me breathless. I was being stupid, but I was just pushing myself, going in oxygen chambers, having Vitamin C, Vitamin D, B12. Everything just to make sure that I was on that plane for Mikie Tallon. So I think boxing, like always, gave me a place to be. It was something in the diary instead of being sat at home and having to deal with it. It was feeling that I had to be somewhere, to still do a job, and that’s what boxing did to get me through that period of time.”
That period of time, incidentally, was only three months ago. Now he’s here, among his superheroes in Thailand, as one of the stars of the show. Roberto Duran by his side and the road ahead restored. It could all have been so different; something that struck Gallagher sharply when silence descended on the room during the awards ceremony and the faces of those who died in 2025 were shown on big screens.
“I could easily have been on there, which doesn’t bear thinking about, to be honest, but then you can’t help but think about it,” he says. “Yeah, I’m truly blessed. I’ve got to make the most of everything that I’ve got now.”
A few long months after selecting which songs would be played at his own funeral, what guests would be there to hear them, who would carry his coffin into church and where that coffin would be buried, Joe Gallagher sits with Roberto Duran, his hero and friend, in a lavish hotel in Bangkok sharing a dessert.
Such is life these days for the British trainer.
After getting the all clear from Stage 4 cancer, Gallagher was at the WBC Convention to accept a lifetime achievement award, one the 57-year-old knows he is receiving predominantly because he’s still alive.
“I’m finding it hard getting used to people being nice to me,” Gallagher says, chuckling. The trainer has long been known for battling with promoters, media and sanctioning bodies purely for the benefit of his boxers. Naturally, he has rubbed some people wrong along the way. But the entire industry rejoiced when Gallagher, after telling everyone he would do so, beat the deadly disease.
“Genuinely, the warmth and the kindness is quite thawing,” he goes on. “The way I was looked after yesterday and we had the reception at the cocktail party around the pool and they brought out a huge birthday cake for me, we had candles, they sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me. It was like, wow, Mauricio [Sulaiman] and the whole team at the WBC are being brilliant.”
Gallagher was astonishingly positive, at least on the outside, during that grueling 12-month quest to kill the cancer that was invading his bowels and liver. There must have been dark clouds behind the scenes, though. Did Gallagher ever lose his grip on the silver linings, even if only momentarily?
“No, I wouldn’t say I did,” he says. “I wouldn’t entertain [negativity]; I didn’t want to entertain it; I didn’t want my brain to be entertaining the complications. I did have to go through the process of arranging funerals. Wills, all that type of stuff. Songs to be played, people to speak, where to be buried. All that stuff. And that was hard.”
Gallagher’s forever mentor is Phil Martin, the trainer who passed away from cancer in May 1994, barely months after being diagnosed with the disease. “I was always aware of the aggressiveness and how quick things would go,” Gallagher explains. “I was always aware of that in the back of my head, but I wouldn’t entertain it. When I went to [cancer center] Christie’s and they gave me leaflets, I just put them in carrier bags, put them on the stairs. Didn’t want to see things lying around the house to remind me of it. I just threw myself more into work – more fights, more fighters, more dates. I just thought, ‘Well, I’m the captain of my own ship and I’ve got to lead by example.’
“‘Cancer,’ I always thought, ‘fornicate you. I’ll beat you. I’ll fornicating do you,’ no problem. That ain’t a problem. What was the problem was the small little battles along the way: your pride, your bit of respect, going to the hospital, having medicals, having your colonoscopies, asking to roll over and have another finger stuck up your bum. Then, when you’re in the hospital ward at two in the morning and you think you’re passing wind and you’re not, and you’ve had to go and ask a nurse in the ward to help change the bed sheets and stuff like that. They were the battles where you think, ‘fornicating hell,’ like, Jesus, especially when you think yourself bigger and better in your pride, and that’s what got stripped away.”
Gallagher had resisted going to the doctors for a comprehensive check-up for several years prior to his diagnosis. He felt fit, you see. There were no symptoms, no reasons to seek help. It was only after he was persuaded to get what he calls “a full-body MOT” and a stool sample was taken that the cancer, lurking boldly but silently behind his bowels, was discovered. For Gallagher, arranging that checkup was his “sliding doors moment.”
“I always think to myself: If I wouldn’t, in that haste of a moment, [have] picked that phone up, at what point this year would my bowels have ruptured?” he explains. “Would I have then gone to the hospital and looked at the possible treatments and then what would it have been? You’re on the egg timer. The egg timer is turned upside down. That’s how long you’ve got. … I’ll always be forever grateful for the one or two people around me that forced me and pushed me to go and have that done that time, because at the time when it was diagnosed, the tumor was huge; it had broken the back wall of the bowel and had spread to the liver. I had no signs.”
Therein lies the obvious takeaway from Gallagher’s story: get yourself checked out regularly. But the sport of boxing, and its pull to those under its spell, is second only to Gallagher as the hero of the piece. After enduring further treatment late last summer, the coach knew he had only six weeks to get himself in shape for a trip to Las Vegas. One of his boxers, flyweight prospect Mikie Tallon, needed him in the corner, and Gallagher had no intention of letting him down.
“I’m going for walks around the block and then the next day crashing out, being in the gym, not being able to shout because the energy was taken out of me,” he remembers. “The lads seeing me breathless. I was being stupid, but I was just pushing myself, going in oxygen chambers, having Vitamin C, Vitamin D, B12. Everything just to make sure that I was on that plane for Mikie Tallon. So I think boxing, like always, gave me a place to be. It was something in the diary instead of being sat at home and having to deal with it. It was feeling that I had to be somewhere, to still do a job, and that’s what boxing did to get me through that period of time.”
That period of time, incidentally, was only three months ago. Now he’s here, among his superheroes in Thailand, as one of the stars of the show. Roberto Duran by his side and the road ahead restored. It could all have been so different; something that struck Gallagher sharply when silence descended on the room during the awards ceremony and the faces of those who died in 2025 were shown on big screens.
“I could easily have been on there, which doesn’t bear thinking about, to be honest, but then you can’t help but think about it,” he says. “Yeah, I’m truly blessed. I’ve got to make the most of everything that I’ve got now.”
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SeanBrennan
- Bantamweight
- Posts: 10023
- Joined: 12 Feb 2022, 12:45
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
Thanks for sharing. This gentleman is my hero. So so happy he is surviving and thriving.
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
thats tremendous news! So pleased to hear that.
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SeanBrennan
- Bantamweight
- Posts: 10023
- Joined: 12 Feb 2022, 12:45
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Ruthless-RKO
- Welterweight
- Posts: 103901
- Joined: 24 Apr 2016, 11:59
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
Joe Gallagher, battling cancer again, aiming for surgery in September
Leading trainer Joe Gallagher is hoping to have surgery in September after being told at the start of this year that cancer had returned to his liver.
As recently as last December, Gallagher was out in Bangkok picking up an award at the WBC Convention – to significant applause – for remarkably beating stage four liver and bowel cancer.
Making the most of every second, as he dined with Roberto Duran, joked with Oleksandr Usyk, and campaigned for higher rankings for his boxers, Gallagher looked only forward to what that stable – Mikie Tallon, Frazer Clarke, Taz Nadeem, Zelfa Barrett, Jack Massey, Clark Smith, Kieran McDaid, Joe Cooper, Huey Malone, Josh Holmes, and Billy Deniz – could achieve in the coming year.
That optimism was soon threatened, however. Gallagher was left furious when a routine check-up discovered the disease was invading again.
“The cancer came back at the beginning of the year in my liver, the bastard,” Gallagher told BS. “It is in four different areas [of my liver], one of which sits on a vein that helps blood travel from my legs to head.”
Initially told it was “two out of 10 operable and six out of 10 manageable” Gallagher sought a second opinion in April and was advised that, if he underwent chemotherapy and the treatment was a success, then an operation was a realistic possibility.
“I was so angry I had to do chemo as I felt back to my best,” he remembered. “Frazer [Clarke] had just fought [Justis] Huni and I was back. But then I had to go through this again.”
By the end of July, and forced to say a temporary goodbye to his hair in the process, one of the most respected coaches in the boxing world had undergone seven cycles “of chemo cocktails” which included sessions ranging from 90 minutes “in a chair” to having “a chemo canister attached to me” for 48 hours.
Gallagher admits that further efforts – injections over the course of seven days – to produce white blood cells “really knocks me for six”. He hopes the next stage of treatment is his last: "They've said it's now operable which will happen in early September, so fingers crossed."
The 57-year-old, when appearing on TalkSport over the weekend and talking publicly about his latest bout with cancer for the first time, has regained his sunny outlook. “As you can see, new season, new hairstyle,” he chuckled.
Clarke, the heavyweight everyone had written off, had just got back to winning ways. Gallagher has every intention of joining him.
“Listen, a bit of a kick in the bollocks at the start of the year after going through what I went through last year, with bowel and liver cancer, and now for it to come back this year.
“I’ve not really said much about it, you just have to get on with it.
“You have no say in it, but the amount of chemo, and the amount of medication you have, you can see [the affect]. It’s hit me a little bit more this time."
Regardless, Gallagher, whose 2026 record as a trainer reads 22-2 across his 11 boxers, doesn’t plan on taking any time off.
“No slowing down,” he told me. “Get surgery out of the way, big end to the year, and 2027 is when we’re coming for all the titles.”
Leading trainer Joe Gallagher is hoping to have surgery in September after being told at the start of this year that cancer had returned to his liver.
As recently as last December, Gallagher was out in Bangkok picking up an award at the WBC Convention – to significant applause – for remarkably beating stage four liver and bowel cancer.
Making the most of every second, as he dined with Roberto Duran, joked with Oleksandr Usyk, and campaigned for higher rankings for his boxers, Gallagher looked only forward to what that stable – Mikie Tallon, Frazer Clarke, Taz Nadeem, Zelfa Barrett, Jack Massey, Clark Smith, Kieran McDaid, Joe Cooper, Huey Malone, Josh Holmes, and Billy Deniz – could achieve in the coming year.
That optimism was soon threatened, however. Gallagher was left furious when a routine check-up discovered the disease was invading again.
“The cancer came back at the beginning of the year in my liver, the bastard,” Gallagher told BS. “It is in four different areas [of my liver], one of which sits on a vein that helps blood travel from my legs to head.”
Initially told it was “two out of 10 operable and six out of 10 manageable” Gallagher sought a second opinion in April and was advised that, if he underwent chemotherapy and the treatment was a success, then an operation was a realistic possibility.
“I was so angry I had to do chemo as I felt back to my best,” he remembered. “Frazer [Clarke] had just fought [Justis] Huni and I was back. But then I had to go through this again.”
By the end of July, and forced to say a temporary goodbye to his hair in the process, one of the most respected coaches in the boxing world had undergone seven cycles “of chemo cocktails” which included sessions ranging from 90 minutes “in a chair” to having “a chemo canister attached to me” for 48 hours.
Gallagher admits that further efforts – injections over the course of seven days – to produce white blood cells “really knocks me for six”. He hopes the next stage of treatment is his last: "They've said it's now operable which will happen in early September, so fingers crossed."
The 57-year-old, when appearing on TalkSport over the weekend and talking publicly about his latest bout with cancer for the first time, has regained his sunny outlook. “As you can see, new season, new hairstyle,” he chuckled.
Clarke, the heavyweight everyone had written off, had just got back to winning ways. Gallagher has every intention of joining him.
“Listen, a bit of a kick in the bollocks at the start of the year after going through what I went through last year, with bowel and liver cancer, and now for it to come back this year.
“I’ve not really said much about it, you just have to get on with it.
“You have no say in it, but the amount of chemo, and the amount of medication you have, you can see [the affect]. It’s hit me a little bit more this time."
Regardless, Gallagher, whose 2026 record as a trainer reads 22-2 across his 11 boxers, doesn’t plan on taking any time off.
“No slowing down,” he told me. “Get surgery out of the way, big end to the year, and 2027 is when we’re coming for all the titles.”
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
God bless Joe, keep punching.
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
All the very best to Joe.
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punchers chance
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 696
- Joined: 12 Jul 2005, 18:37
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
All the best Joe.
I’ve been through all that shit and like every cancer patient you fight the physical battle and the mental one. You get it into remission (if you’re lucky) and hope for the best.
If there’s one good thing to come of it it’s that it makes you appreciate every day. Just walking around in the fresh air is bloody amazing when you’ve spent the best part of a year inside and walking to the end of the drive had left me breathless from the side effects of chemotherapy. Now I’m back out there living again. Life is amazing. The world is full of wonder. Just like Joe I want to stay around.
I’ve been through all that shit and like every cancer patient you fight the physical battle and the mental one. You get it into remission (if you’re lucky) and hope for the best.
If there’s one good thing to come of it it’s that it makes you appreciate every day. Just walking around in the fresh air is bloody amazing when you’ve spent the best part of a year inside and walking to the end of the drive had left me breathless from the side effects of chemotherapy. Now I’m back out there living again. Life is amazing. The world is full of wonder. Just like Joe I want to stay around.
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
Joe has been truly inspirational in the way he has approached his fight. Seeing him being interviewed with his "new haircut" was really really sad.
You've smashed it once Joe, you can do it again and positive thoughts is there is an operation to come - which is positive. My old man never had that option sadly.
You've smashed it once Joe, you can do it again and positive thoughts is there is an operation to come - which is positive. My old man never had that option sadly.
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margaret thatcher
- Super Featherweight
- Posts: 39387
- Joined: 22 Jul 2019, 15:43
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
ya whatever you think of him, he has had a great outlook through this all and can be a role model in how hes taken it. maybe some of that stuborness in him is helping. good on him
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jameswilson
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 13504
- Joined: 08 Jan 2004, 18:01
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
Thoughts are with him.
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Terminator666
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 1667
- Joined: 06 Nov 2007, 10:18
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
Good luck Joe Gallagher
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SeanBrennan
- Bantamweight
- Posts: 10023
- Joined: 12 Feb 2022, 12:45
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
Joe will beat this he’s too needed to check out early he’s been extremely kind to me so I’m praying for him
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
All the best to Joe Gallagher, he's done it before, he can do it again
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SeanBrennan
- Bantamweight
- Posts: 10023
- Joined: 12 Feb 2022, 12:45
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Ruthless-RKO
- Welterweight
- Posts: 103901
- Joined: 24 Apr 2016, 11:59
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
Joe Gallagher gives cancer update: 'After January setback, I have an operation in September to get rid of this'
Manchester boxing coach Joe Gallagher speaks on latest episode of Toe2Toe Sky Sports Boxing podcast; Gallagher reveals after receiving all-clear from cancer in September, scans in January showed it had returned to his liver; Having undergone chemo, he will have operation in September
Boxing trainer Joe Gallagher has revealed his cancer returned in January, but after responding well to chemotherapy he has an operation in September with hopes of getting the all-clear again.
Speaking as a guest on the latest episode of the Toe2Toe Sky Sports Boxing podcast, esteemed Manchester coach Gallagher was previously diagnosed with stage four bowel and liver cancer, undergoing chemotherapy and a major operation.
He received the all-clear in September last year and was well enough to accompany his fighter Mikie Tallon to Las Vegas to box in a mid-week show ahead of Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford.
But scans in January revealed the cancer had returned to his liver.
"2026 has been a bumpy road. It was a right kick in the nuts at the beginning of the year," Gallagher tells Sky Sports.
"In September, I got given the all clear on the plane to Vegas, and then I went in back in January for something to do with my heart - believe it or not, I have a heart! - I went for scans and then they came back and they said: 'Listen the cancer has come back to your liver.'
"They said it was inoperable at first, and then there was chance of it being operable, but I had to do a load of chemo to shrink it. So I've gone through seven cycles, and it was a lot more aggressive.
"The cocktail of chemo was huge. Obviously, you could see me losing my hair and everything else.
"I've been doing that, coming through it all, so now I'm going to have an operation in September to get rid of this.
"There's four areas of the liver that has got cancer, three of them can be cut out, one of them they've got to burn it out, but that one is sitting on a main artery that's carrying blood from the feet to the heart.
"That's the one that needed to shrink a little bit, which it has.
"The consultant is very matter of fact, which they have to be. He said I needed to rest.
"But I was just so annoyed because I thought: '2026, here we go, I've got a great team of talent coming through.' And then I thought: 'Oh my God.'
"But we've still worked on. I was in the gym yesterday.
"Everyone knows I'm not available in September. But I'll be back for the beginning of October, hopefully."
Manchester boxing coach Joe Gallagher speaks on latest episode of Toe2Toe Sky Sports Boxing podcast; Gallagher reveals after receiving all-clear from cancer in September, scans in January showed it had returned to his liver; Having undergone chemo, he will have operation in September
Boxing trainer Joe Gallagher has revealed his cancer returned in January, but after responding well to chemotherapy he has an operation in September with hopes of getting the all-clear again.
Speaking as a guest on the latest episode of the Toe2Toe Sky Sports Boxing podcast, esteemed Manchester coach Gallagher was previously diagnosed with stage four bowel and liver cancer, undergoing chemotherapy and a major operation.
He received the all-clear in September last year and was well enough to accompany his fighter Mikie Tallon to Las Vegas to box in a mid-week show ahead of Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford.
But scans in January revealed the cancer had returned to his liver.
"2026 has been a bumpy road. It was a right kick in the nuts at the beginning of the year," Gallagher tells Sky Sports.
"In September, I got given the all clear on the plane to Vegas, and then I went in back in January for something to do with my heart - believe it or not, I have a heart! - I went for scans and then they came back and they said: 'Listen the cancer has come back to your liver.'
"They said it was inoperable at first, and then there was chance of it being operable, but I had to do a load of chemo to shrink it. So I've gone through seven cycles, and it was a lot more aggressive.
"The cocktail of chemo was huge. Obviously, you could see me losing my hair and everything else.
"I've been doing that, coming through it all, so now I'm going to have an operation in September to get rid of this.
"There's four areas of the liver that has got cancer, three of them can be cut out, one of them they've got to burn it out, but that one is sitting on a main artery that's carrying blood from the feet to the heart.
"That's the one that needed to shrink a little bit, which it has.
"The consultant is very matter of fact, which they have to be. He said I needed to rest.
"But I was just so annoyed because I thought: '2026, here we go, I've got a great team of talent coming through.' And then I thought: 'Oh my God.'
"But we've still worked on. I was in the gym yesterday.
"Everyone knows I'm not available in September. But I'll be back for the beginning of October, hopefully."
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SeanBrennan
- Bantamweight
- Posts: 10023
- Joined: 12 Feb 2022, 12:45
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
Praying this absolute gent recovers well.
Re: Pray for Joe Gallagher
BRAVE FELLA