"Prognosis said he might not expect to live past 12 years" - Cameron Green & family reveal he's suffering from 'irreversible' kidney disease
Australian all-rounder Cameron Green and his family have gone public about the all-rounder's chronic 'irreversible' kidney condition. Green said he's suffering from stage two of the disease which doesn't affect his day-to-day life much but can get severely worse quickly without proper care.
The disease was diagnosed when his mother, Bee Tracey, went for her 19-week pregnancy ultrasound. She was told that her son had a "thickening of bladder", which meant that his kidneys wouldn't develop properly. The initial prognosis scared the family as they were told about life expectancy issues.
“At the time it was uncharted territory as such, the prognosis wasn’t great," Green's father, Gary, told Channel 7. "There were life-expectancy issues that he might not expect to live past 12 years of age.”
The 24-year-old cricketer, speaking on the sidelines of Australia's opening Test against Pakistan in Perth, said his kidneys are currently functioning at 60 percent capacity.
“Chronic kidney disease is basically a progressive disease of your kidney’s health function. Unfortunately, mine doesn’t filter the blood as well as other kidneys,” he told Channel 7. "With chronic kidney disease there’s five stages, with stage one being the least severe, and stage five being transplant or dialysis,” he said. Fortunately, I’m stage two, but if you don’t look after them enough, it easily goes back down. Kidneys can’t get better. It’s irreversible. So any way you can find to slow the progression, you basically try and do.”
Green said he considers himself lucky for not suffering too many physical constraints from the disease. This is the first time he has spoken about it in the hope of creating awareness and helping other sufferers.
"It was probably my kidney function that was affecting my cramping" - Cameron Green on disease's impact on his cricket
Green said that the disease hasn't affected his cricket too much yet, except for Australia's three-match ODI series against New Zealand in Cairns in September 2022.
“There was definitely one time up in Cairns, playing Australia versus New Zealand, I think it was pretty well documented that I had a pretty long day of bowling and a pretty long bat as well, and then had a cramping episode,” he said of the time.
“It took me a long time to realise that it was probably my kidney function that was affecting my cramping. I always thought I didn’t drink enough, didn’t eat enough, didn’t look after myself during the game as well as I could have, but I think over time I realised that I was doing absolutely everything right, but I was still cramping, unfortunately,” Green added.
Although the condition was kept away from the public eye, Green's Australian teammates and coaching staff knew about it.