Geoff Thomas on the day his life was changed by leukaemia diagnosis

‘Christian Eriksen will have a different mindset now… you realise what matters’: Former England international Geoff Thomas reflects on the day his life was changed by leukaemia diagnosis and discusses preparing to ride the Tour de France route AGAIN

• Geoff Thomas says that Christian Eriksen will now have a different mindset
• Thomas knows about struggle having been diagnosed with leukaemia in 2003
• Thomas, who was initially given three months to live, has now turned to cycling
• The Crystal Palace legend hopes to raise £1million for Cure Leukaemia

The old footballer was watching the younger footballer and went through the same churn as the rest of us. The same but perhaps a little different, too.

‘I saw him on the floor getting worked on and everything else just pales into insignificance,’ says Geoff Thomas. ‘You see all that, what happened with Christian Eriksen, and quickly you realise what matters and what doesn’t, don’t you?

‘It was so great to see that picture of him, whenever it was. Half an hour later? An hour? His eyes were open, so that was great. And then the update that he is OK, wow. You know what though? I am sure his mindset is different today from before.’

Geoff Thomas says Christian Eriksen will now have a different mindset after his collapse

Thomas stated that everything pales into insignificance when such harrowing events occur

Thomas is sure because he knows better than most what it is to walk that line, and he knows that those who come out of such situations are rarely the same as those who go in. His scenario was a while ago now, 18 years on July 3 if we go back to the diagnosis of his leukaemia, but that was the point when his life changed.

From sitting in traffic south of Birmingham in 2003, and hearing through his phone at the age of 38 that the news wasn’t good, to today, when he will go for a bike ride in France, it has all been different from what it was. Changed, altered, better in many ways.

He used to be a good all-rounder of a midfielder who played 500-odd games across 19 years as a professional, mostly for Crystal Palace, and he had nine caps for England. Really decent player.

But he isn’t that guy these days. At 56, he is less driven and less single-minded. More perspective. Not spiritual, but grateful. And so he rides his bike, and when he rides his bike he raises money.

On Wednesday morning, in Mayenne, Thomas and his team of 24 will get going on the fifth stage of the Tour de France route. They’ve been going since Saturday and they’re doing the lot, all 3,384km of it, one week ahead of the professional peloton — Thomas’s fifth lap since he went into remission in 2005.

His hope is to raise £1million for the Cure Leukaemia charity by the time they’re done, which will go with the fortunes he has previously made, estimated to be somewhere north of £4m. He was made an MBE for it on the same day he watched Eriksen.

Ex-England international Thomas’ life was changed when he was diagnosed with leukaemia

‘You stand at the start before pedalling and you know it’s going to be hard,’ he says. ‘But it has to be hard and riding up mountains is very, very hard. If it was just a walk maybe we wouldn’t be able to get the support we want.’

Thomas has stories to tell from those mountains, and they all follow the day in 2005 that he knew he wanted to do something extra with his second chance. ‘I had the diagnosis in 2003 and at first I had three months to live,’ he says. 

‘My daughters were only seven and 10, you know. My only other experience of cancer until then was that my dad had it in his lungs and died six weeks later.

‘But I had the most amazing doctor, Dr Charlie Craddock. He spoke to me about stem cell treatment. It’s not a guarantee and you need a match. After a while it turned out my sister was a match and really, the rest, the science… I was lucky to have these people. 

‘By 2005 I was in remission. When you have come through something like that, after seeing so many get taken, and you being broken down into something so weak, you often find yourself immediately thinking, “What can I do to help?”.’

Thomas turned to cycling and is set to take on the Tour de France route to raise money

 Thomas’s answer was his bike.

‘I’d never properly cycled before the first ride in 2005,’ he says. ‘I did five or six miles a few months before we did the tour route and I was finished. But doing the tour route was a good way to raise money and so we did it.’

With a small team of friends, including the former Sportsmail journalist Neil Ashton, they generated £200,000 in that first year.

‘The first was the hardest,’ he says. ‘I was six months into remission and I was weak from all the treatment. One day I was going up Col du Galibier, which is basically one of the worst climbs on the tour. It was 28 degrees at the bottom and snowing at the top.

‘I went into the clouds and by then I was moving no more than four miles an hour, just crawling up there and freezing. I’d told the others to get to the top and I was on my own and just felt, “What am I doing this for?”

‘I’m not spiritual but suddenly something just hit me and I was thinking about the guys I met when I was being treated who had lost their battle. 

‘They were all in my mind, and I just broke down. I was so emotional but with it I somehow found some strength and got to the top. When I got down again it was sunny and I can honestly say it was a moment where I could see that everything I’d done before — football, the battle with my health, everything else — was the past and now I felt I had a future.’

Thomas revealed that his hope is to raise £1million for the Cure Leukaemia charity this year

Thomas is pleased with how his former team-mate Gareth Southgate is doing as England boss

There were three more cracks at that course, spanning 2007 to 2017, with one in between in 2015 to recognise 10 years in remission. ‘I had heat stroke in 2015 because we were riding in 44 degrees for four days, and in 2017 I had a horrible crash and smashed up my hip. After four days it was infected and that was the only one where I could not finish.’

As it happens, the big finish will come after this one, which in theory will be Thomas’s last. ‘I have been a bit like Frank Sinatra and saying I won’t do more and then coming back,’ he says. ‘But this will be it.’ A thought had crossed his mind that he might climb Everest but his wife, Julie, ‘drew the line at that’. He adds: ‘I’ll continue raising awareness and doing what I can. When you have been through it you just want to help.’

Football for Thomas is a part of a different chapter these days. He still watches and he stays in contact with his old team-mates, including Gareth Southgate.

‘I’m so proud of what he’s doing,’ says Thomas. ‘After how they did in the World Cup, where there wasn’t so much pressure, they had a bit of expectation on them this time but I never doubted he could handle it. He always had more steel in him than some might think.

‘He could have done anything. He was never a typical footballer, most of us could only do football.’

Thomas has sold himself rather short there. 

To support Cure Leukaemia, visit www.cureleukaemia.co.uk

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