Aussie motorsport legend Marcos Ambrose goes public with secret cancer battle

Australian motorsport legend Marcos Ambrose has gone public with his secret two-year cancer battle that culminated in life-saving surgery.

Ambrose, a two-time Supercars champion and NASCAR winner, is spreading the message about organ donation after undergoing a full liver transplant 12 months ago.

The 49-year-old is feeling good and healthy now, but it was a different story two years ago when his life was turned upside down.

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Ambrose revealed a routine check-up after experiencing a sore shoulder turned into a terminal stage four cancer diagnosis.

Initially told it was inoperable, Ambrose underwent intense chemotherapy, which opened the door for the live-saving surgery.

Ambrose underwent a life-saving liver transplant. Credit: AAP

“My diagnosis came really quickly and suddenly and very much unexpectedly,” Ambrose said at Friday night’s Pirtek Legends Night on the Gold Coast.

“I was digging a trench in my backyard and I had a sore shoulder. I didn’t think much of it. I’d just done the Bathurst 6 Hour with George Miedecke and his dad.

“I felt a bit tired, I was struggling to exercise, but you know, I was just getting old.

“I went to the doctor for a sore shoulder and within 12 hours I was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer. They called it terminal at the time.”

Ambrose’s sore shoulder was a result of inflammation in his liver, where the cancer had already spread.

He immediately underwent chemotherapy.

“We caught it late, because there were no symptoms, no signs. And it had spread,” he continued.

“The only place to go and deal with this is actually to start doing cancer treatment with chemotherapy, to try to hold it back.

“They deemed it at the time inoperable, and sort of like, we just have to manage this.”

The chemotherapy was not only successful in limiting the spread, but also opening the door for surgery.

“I’m one of the lucky ones, I guess, that the chemotherapy worked hard and opened a window for a couple of surgeries to try to get in front of it,” he said.

“We were opened up to a possibility, subject to a lot of criteria, to do a (liver) transplant.”

While surgery became an option for Ambrose, there were still a few more hurdles to clear.

He was forced to relocate from Launceston to Sydney to wait by the phone for when a liver became available for transplant.

The relocation was another tough situation for Ambrose and his family, with daughter Adelaide remaining in Tasmania to finish school.

Eventually, the call came and he became just the third person in Australia to undergo the surgery.

“I couldn’t be here without my wife and my kids and my dad and everybody,” he said.

“It’s just incredible. You need that around you to get through something like that

“It was awful for me to think (my kids) might not see a good dad again.”

Ambrose also spoke of his “guilt” at being one of the lucky ones.

“You could sit here one-year post (the) risky, major operation and a diagnosis of a terrible cancer and to be here where we are today, it’s just a miracle,” Ambrose told News Corp.

“I’m only 12 months post (the transplant) so I don’t want to overstate anything, but everything is going great at the moment.

“I am feeling great. I am living every day as fast as I can and doing as much as I can.

“It’s been a journey for sure, but it’s not about woe. I’m one of the real lucky ones.

“If there’s something that I struggle with, it’s actually guilt – guilt that I’ve been one of the lucky ones.”