Jonathan Mills: Club cricketer who hit century after cancer diagnosis invited to Lord's
- Published
Jonathan Mills' century led to an article about him in The Times newspaper
Club cricketer Jonathan Mills aims to carry on playing as long as possible despite a terminal cancer diagnosis.
The 54-year-old hit 110 off 123 balls for Brookweald second XI just days after learning that chemotherapy treatment had not worked.
And it earned him an invitation from MCC president Stephen Fry to watch day two of the second Ashes Test at Lord's.
"I'll go and have a chat with Mr McCullum and see if he needs any tips," he told BBC Essex's Around The Wicket.
"It's all part of the famous for 15 minutes scenario. I was driving down to Kent and Mr Stephen Fry's secretary phoned me and invited me to Lord's as his guest in the president's suite.
"They did invite me for Friday or Saturday but I've got a wedding in York, so they very kindly made Thursday available."
Jonathan's innings, which included 21 fours, enabled Brookweald to post a total of 248-9 from their 45 overs in their away game at Woodham Mortimer on 17 June.
And the total proved just enough for a thrilling one-run win as the home side came up just short on 247-7.
Facing bouncers bowled 'at my head'
Jonathan Mills talking to Test Match Special's Jonathan Agnew at Lord's
Having made himself available for selection on the Tuesday before the game, it was his second hundred for the club.
"They knew I was keen to play. I'd been popping down to watch and umpire every now and again," he said.
"I did toy with buying a new bat, I thought mine might be a bit heavy because I'd lost so much muscle and weight, but it turned out I could still wield mine, so that saved me a few hundred quid at least.
"It was a very hot day and I changed my shirt after the first over - I normally bat in a long-sleeved shirt and thought 'this isn't happening, it's too hot.'
"They had a decentish opening bowler and he was bowling bouncers at my head and I thought 'I'm a bit rusty here' and called for my helmet. After that I managed to settle into it."
Jonathan's cancer was diagnosed after he experienced stomach pains last December and eventually surgeons removed a tumour "the size of a tennis ball".
Six sessions of chemotherapy followed, but he was then told that the cancer had spread to other parts of his body.
"[Further] Surgery was unavailable to me, so my prognosis was therefore foreshortened and the only thing left to me was palliative chemo," he said.
"Unfortunately, I'm one of the 45% that don't react positively to chemotherapy. I decided that further palliative chemo was not the way to go and I'd just to try and get back to as normal [a life] as I could for as long as I can. That's what I've tried to do."
'I was thinking I'd get a duck'
MCC president Stephen Fry sent a Lord's invitation to Jonathan Mills
Because of the effects of his gruelling treatment, Jonathan decided "not to run too much" during his innings against Woodham Mortimer.
"I was thinking I'd get a duck, my first game back for ages, and so I was chuffed to bits to get to 50. I was quite emotional, and my batting partner was quite emotional as well because everybody knew how important it was to me," he said.
"Once I got 50 I was chuffed to bits and then became more free in terms of 'play your shots, enjoy it now, you've had a good knock'.
"When I got to 100 I was too tired to worry about crying at that point. [Eventually] I got out to some terrible agricultural hoick, probably through sheer exhaustion really. But job done, as it were, and I went and sat down."
Woodham Mortimer v Brookweald - match scorecard, external
Jonathan did not play in last Saturday's 128-run win by the seconds over Terling CC but hopes to be back out in the middle as soon as possible.
He said: "I've got a lot of social commitments as a prognosis like this does bring a lot of people out of the woodwork and my social calendar has gone somewhat crazy.
"I think the next game I'll get to play is an old boys tournament, I'll make myself available for that back home at my old school in Wolverhampton and then hopefully start taking the field again with Brookweald in early August and crack on from there.
"I'll just keep going for as long as I can. That's the plan. As long as they'll have me I'll try and stumble out and do my best."
Jonathan Mills was speaking to BBC Essex's Victoria Polley