His diagnosis was so poor that his life insurance policy was paid out.
“I went to hospital with a sore back and they told me I had leukaemia,” John said.
“It was Friday the 13th when they said if I didn’t start treatment on the following Monday, I wouldn’t last three months and wouldn’t be around by April.
“I ended up staying at the Wesley in Brisbane for around nine months.”
At the peak of his training career, John had 60 horses in work before he scaled back to around 30 in recent times prior to his decision to transfer his team to his son.