The football legend was diagnosed with the condition eight years ago, and he tells Healthy Times he thinks it was brought on by heartbreak.
His wife Feziwe Radebe died in 2008 after losing her battle with cancer. A few months later Lucas collapsed while working out on a treadmill.
He says he woke up in hospital, and had no idea what happened to him. He was later diagnosed with a heart condition.
“But I’m convinced it was related to my wife’s death. You think‚ as a man‚ you have to be strong for the kids. But inside? Inside‚ I was breaking. I didn’t know how I was going to cope. Fezi had helped me throughout my career. She helped make me strong. And then she just wasn’t there anymore‚” he told the publication.
Lucas was by Feziwe’s side when she died in October 2008.
“Lucas had spent many hours and days at the hospital looking after her. She had been the woman who supported him throughout his soccer career,” his manager Glyn Binkin told IOL shortly after her death.
Feziwe battled bowel cancer for two years, and Lucas supported her throughout her ordeal.
A few years before her death, Lucas told the Sunday Mirror that when he first learned his wife had cancer, he was afraid to tell her, and asked the doctor to break the news for him.
“I really didn’t know what to do. I had to tell my wife Fezi she had cancer. But he [the doctor] said it was much better if it came from me. I went to see her three times in hospital, but I just couldn’t tell her,” he said.
Lucas has since recovered from his heart condition. He also found love again, and married Thobela Silver in 2015.
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