Boxing commentator Adam Smith has opened up about his battle with bladder cancer, admitting he feels "very lucky" to have returned to work after such a "brutal" last few years.
Smith was diagnosed with cancer in 2023 after doctors found a large tumour near his bladder wall and was told he was "about four days" away from death had it not been discovered. Smith underwent a six-hour operation that removed 19 lymph nodes, his bladder and his prostate.
He then underwent chemotherapy for three-and-a-half months before he was given the all-clear. Smith has since left his role as Sky Sports' Head of Boxing after 30 years with the broadcaster and returned to commentary earlier this month as he called the action for DAZN during Oleksandr Usyk's win over Tyson Fury earlier this month.
Speaking about his return, Smith told DAZN : "Whether it is calling a four-round fight between two debutants or a world title fight, I love it all and am grateful to be doing such a job, if you can really call it a job.
"The cancer was brutal, it has been very difficult to fight this disease. I had some very dark times and my body has been through hell. My doctors saved me, my family brought me back. I had three-and-a-half lonely months in hospital undergoing treatment.
"I was very lucky to make it through. I am very lucky to be alive and I have a different perspective on life after what happened to me. I wake up in the morning and I am happy, I am not stressed. I am just delighted to have another day."
In a separate interview with the Independent earlier this year, Smith revealed he had to learn how to walk again and that his body has been left "wrecked". He said: "I look healthy, but underneath is a wrecked body.
"I've lost major parts of it. A lot of people are in much worse situations, but it's a tough new life. You have tubes at night, it's not easy. And after the operation, last spring, I got an ileus: my entire body was blocked, food wouldn't go through for 10 days.
"I lost four stone in weight, then I had a twisted bowel. It all went wrong. I was a mess, I was in agony, I couldn't move. The hardest thing was learning to walk again; I had to sit on a chair in the shower for a couple of months, because I couldn't stand. But my family were unbelievable, Sky were amazing.
"I still had many, many lonely nights, but I owe everything to my doctors. I saw my bladder consultant at the end of last year and I said: 'I have to be honest, I didn't think I'd make it.' He said: 'I've got to be honest, I didn't think you would either.'"